LIFESTYLE / Trends

J.K. Rowling voted greatest living British author in book magazine poll

Updated: 2006-06-08 11:41

It's another magical result for J.K. Rowling.

The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter was voted Britain's greatest living writer in a survey released Thursday.

Readers of The Book Magazine ranked Rowling ahead of literary heavyweights including Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Harold Pinter and A.S. Byatt.

Rowling, who is currently writing the seventh and final Potter book, received almost three times as many votes as the second-placed author, fantasy writer Terry Pratchett.

The magazine's online poll allowed readers to choose from a list of 50 authors, or to add their own suggestion. The top 10 consists of Rowling, Pratchett, McEwan, Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Philip Pullman, Pinter, Nick Hornby, Byatt and, in a 10th-place tie, Jonathan Coe and John Le Carre.

Doris Lessing, Alan Bennett, Iain Banks, Muriel Spark, who died in April, David Mitchell, Martin Amis, Ian Rankin, Pat Barker and Alasdair Gray round out the top 20, reports AP.

 
 

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