英国大使馆文化教育处

British readers bought 229 million books in 2011 and the most popular was a novel. The British love reading fiction. For example， a favourite British writer is Charles Dickens. He was born over two hundred years ago but people still read his work today.

Dickens created many memorable characters， like Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. He often used real people as models， including his own father. Dickens was good at describing places and events. He also wrote about poverty – in Oliver Twist， for example. Surprisingly， Dickens wrote many of his books in parts – people read a new chapter every week.

JRR Tolkien was another master of language. He was a professor of Old English at Oxford University and studied Nordic mythology. He used these things in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He influenced fantasy writing and British children's literature， like JK Rowling's Harry Potter.

The most successful writer of crime novels was Agatha Christie. Her best-loved character was the detective Hercule Poirot. Christie once worked in a pharmacy – this gave her useful information about poisons to use in her books.

Dickens died in 1870. JRR Tolkien and Agatha Christie passed away in the 1970s. But their characters – Marley's Ghost， Bilbo Baggins or Miss Marple – live on.

Activity 1 Match the word or phrase with a definition.

a. being without enough money， food， etc.

b. get lots of money， become famous

c. learning and information about a subject

d. long story with imaginary people and events

e. part of a book

f. people represented in a book

Activity 2 Match the phrases below with a writer from the table.

This writer：

a. had an influence on JK Rowling.

b. wrote about Hercule Poirot.

c. wrote his/her books in an unusual way.

d. knew about how to kill people.

e. lived 200 years ago.

f. sometimes wrote about real people.

g. was a teacher.

h. wrote Oliver Twist.