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British novels dominate public's top 100
British books are the nation's favourite, according to a poll of the British public to be revealed on The BBC Big Read Top 100 on BBC TWO tonight (Saturday 17 May) at 9.05pm.
Immediately afterwards on BBC FOUR, the list will be examined and debated by Andrew Marr and a panel of well-known faces.
Nearly 140,000 people nominated their favourite work of fiction as part of The BBC Big Read.
And they voted overwhelmingly for works by British authors and novels set in the UK.
Sixty-six of the top 100 books are written by British authors past and present from George Orwell and Charlotte Bronte to Roald Dahl and Douglas Adams.
Two iconic British writers - Charles Dickens and Terry Pratchett - are the most nominated authors in the list. Each have five works in the top 100.
While thousands nominated books that transport readers to a different world - 1950s underground America, jazz, sex and drugs in Jack Kerouac's On the Road; Vikram Seth's evocative portrait of India in A Suitable Boy; and the vast Russian landscape in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina - the public also love reading about the beauty of their own country with just over half of the top 100 novels set in the UK (51).
Children's novels did well in The BBC Big Read Top 100 list with 30 children's books making it into the Top 100.
Lord of the Rings and JK Rowling's Harry Potter books are joined by four works by Jacqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and classic children's story Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.
And fantastic fiction has a life beyond the page with 71% of the top 100 novels adapted for screen.
Jane Root, Controller of BBC TWO, says: "There has been a fantastic response to the nomination phase for The BBC Big Read, with over four times as many votes as Great Britons gained in its nomination period.
"On our website over 14,000 messages were posted by people engaging in heated, passionate and funny debates about why their book was the best choice.
"We hope this kind of contagious enthusiasm will spread over the summer and thousands of people will join book groups to discuss, debate and share the experience of books."
The public must wait until Autumn to discover the order of the top 100 novels, when The BBC Big Read returns to BBC TWO for a major documentary series.
The 20 most popular novels will be championed by celebrity advocates attempting to persuade viewers that their book is the best.
The public will then be asked to vote again for one of these top 20 to decide which book is the nation's favourite of favourites.
BBC Big Read activities will be taking place throughout the summer in schools, libraries and bookstores - see press release The Big Read beyond the BBC.
The BBC Big Read website - www.bbc.co.uk/bigread - has information on the top 100 list, literary quizzes and a message board for the public to share their thoughts about the nominated novels.
In The BBC Big Read Battle of the Books, a new weekly discussion programme on BBC FOUR starting in June, two literary advocates pick a book from the list and argue its case to a jury of readers.
Plus there will be special programmes on BBC national and local radio.
The Big Read Top 100, Saturday 17 May, BBC TWO at 9.05pm.
The Big Read Debate with Andrew Marr, Saturday 17 May, BBC FOUR, 10.05pm.
The BBC Big Read Top 100 best-loved books, in alphabetical order, are:
Title | Author |
1984 | George Orwell |
The Alchemist | Paul Coelho |
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll |
Animal Farm | George Orwell |
Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy |
Anne of Green Gables | LM Montgomery |
Artemis Fowl | Eoin Colfer |
The BFG | Roald Dahl |
Birdsong | Sebastian Faulks |
Black Beauty | Anna Sewell |
Bleak House | Charles Dickens |
Brave New World | Aldous Huxley |
Brideshead Revisited | Evelyn Waugh |
Bridget Jones' Diary | Helen Fielding |
Captain Corelli's Mandolin | Louis de Bernieres |
Catch 22 | Joseph L Heller |
The Catcher in the Rye | JD Salinger |
Charlie & Chocolate Factory | Roald Dahl |
A Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens |
The Clan of the Cave Bear | Jean M Auel |
Cold Comfort Farm | Stella Gibbons |
The Colour of Magic | Terry Pratchett |
The Count of Monte Cristo | Alexandre Dumas |
Crime and Punishment | Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
David Copperfield | Charles Dickens |
Double Act | Jacqueline Wilson |
Dune | Frank Herbert |
Emma | Jane Austen |
Far From the Madding Crowd | Thomas Hardy |
Girls in Love | Jacqueline Wilson |
The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy |
The Godfather | Mario Puzo |
Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell |
Good Omens | Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman |
Goodnight Mr Tom | Michelle Magorian |
Gormenghast | Mervyn Peake |
The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |
Great Expectations | Charles Dickens |
The Great Gatsby | F Scott Fitzgerald |
Guards! Guards! | Terry Pratchett |
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | JK Rowling |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | JK Rowling |
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | JK Rowling |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | JK Rowling |
His Dark Materials | Philip Pullman |
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams |
The Hobbit | JRR Tolkien |
Holes | Louis Sachar |
I Capture the Castle | Dodie Smith |
Jane Eyre | Charlotte Bronte |
Kane and Abel | Jeffrey Archer |
Katherine | Anya Seton |
The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe | CS Lewis |
Little Women | Louisa May Alcott |
Lord of the Flies | William Golding |
The Lord of the Rings | JRR Tolkien |
Love in the time of Cholera | Gabriel Garcia Marquez |
The Magic Faraway Tree | Enid Blyton |
Magician | Raymond E Feist |
The Magus | John Fowles |
Matilda | Roald Dahl |
Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Golden |
Middlemarch | George Eliot |
Midnight's Children | Salman Rushdie |
Mort | Terry Pratchett |
Nightwatch | Terry Pratchett |
Noughts and Crosses | Malorie Blackman |
Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck |
On the Road | Jack Kerouac |
One Hundred Years of Solitude | Gabriel Garcia Marquez |
Perfume | Patrick Suskind |
Persuasion | Jane Austen |
The Pillars of the Earth | Ken Follett |
A Prayer for Owen Meany | John Irving |
Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen |
The Princess Diaries | Meg Cabot |
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists | Robert Tressell |
Rebecca | Daphne du Maurier |
The Secret Garden | Frances Hodgson Burnett |
The Secret History | Donna Tartt |
The Shell Seekers | Rosamunde Pilcher |
The Stand | Stephen King |
The Story of Tracy Beaker | Jacqueline Wilson |
A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth |
Swallows and Amazons | Arthur Ransome |
A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens |
Tess of the D'Ubervilles | Thomas Hardy |
The Thorn Birds | Colleen McCullough |
To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
A Town Like Alice | Nevil Shute |
Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson |
The Twits | Roald Dahl |
Ulysses | James Joyce |
Vicky Angel | Jacqueline Wilson |
War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy |
Watership Down | Richard Adams |
The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame |
Winnie the Pooh | AA Milne |
The Woman in White | Wilkie Collins |
Wuthering Heights | Emily Bronte |
Notes to Editors
The Big Read - what they've been saying
The Big Read television special to reveal Nation's Top 100 books(16.04.03)
The Big Read - Britain's biggest ever reading campaign(14.03.03)
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