Huffington Post UK Launch: Americans Pick Their Favorite British Authors (PHOTOS)

America has an enduring love affair with British literature--we may have won the War of Independence but we are forever indebted to our island ancestors for the books that get us excited. So here you are England, America's love note to your authors.

Now here's the surprise: Jane Austen didn't make the list, and neither did Shakespeare. Our best guess is that both are too large to be considered British and they belong to the world. You'll be surprised to see who got mentioned most frequently.

Did we leave your favorite British author out? Let us know in the comments!

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Graham Greene

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Graham Greene came in with more reader votes than any other author. Greene hailed from Hertfordshire, England, and is best known for such novels as "The Power and the Glory" and "Our Man in Havana." In 1948, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for "The Heart of the Matter," and in 1986 was awarded Britain's Order of Merit. The Graham Greene Birthplace Trust now holds a Graham Greene International Festival every year in order to promote the study of and interest in the British author's work.

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Graham Greene came in with more reader votes than any other author. Greene hailed from Hertfordshire, England, and is best known for such novels as "The Power and the Glory" and "Our Man in Havana."

In 1948, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for "The Heart of the Matter," and in 1986 was awarded Britain's Order of Merit.

The Graham Greene Birthplace Trust now holds a Graham Greene International Festival every year in order to promote the study of and interest in the British author's work.

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This British Author

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Bollocks! Hate that author! Cheers! Love that author!

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Comments

[Akbar-Aziz]

10:19 PM on 07/23/2011

Anthomy Trollope, without doubt.

[Hope Richardson]

01:44 PM on 07/16/2011

I can haz Orwell, Doyle, Shakespeare, and Rowling, plz?

[Paul Baack]

11:48 AM on 07/11/2011

Um, I'm a little late to this party, even so...

... Where are
P.G. Wodehouse?
Arthur Conan Doyle?
William Shakespeare?
J.R.R. Tolkien?
Agatha Christie?
H. Rider Haggard?
Jane Austen?
The Brontë sisters?
Henry James?
William Blake?
Etc. etc. etc.

And I'll add Sax Rohmer for my own fun.

[sanjayvarmasv]

05:54 AM on 07/11/2011

No P. G. Wodehouse...?

[Chad Wheeler]

07:05 PM on 07/14/2011

This list is ridiculous without Wodehouse.

[contrarywise]

10:39 PM on 07/07/2011

Sticking to 20th century authors:

1. Kingsley Amis
2. Anthony Powell
3. Evelyn Waugh
4. Elizabeth Taylor
5. Nancy Mitford
6. Julian Barnes
7. Mary McMinnies ("The Visitors")

[Feathers Eagleburger]

02:09 PM on 07/07/2011

WHAT? No Terry Pratchett?!

[rtfq2times]

11:06 AM on 07/07/2011

Dick Francis, Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester, Leslie Chartris,Brett Simon, Bernard Cornwell, Jack Higgins, Alistair Maclean,Edith Pargeter (Ellis Peters), and Jacqueline Winspear.

[Occams Breadknife]

10:37 AM on 07/07/2011

Gissing and Fforde but not Terry Pratchett or Tolkien? Did HuffUK just talk to American expats? Or to book club members at high street shops?

[Jessica Epstein]

09:18 AM on 07/07/2011

No Shakespeare? My list would also have to include William Blake, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, T.H. White, and Simon Winchester, at least.

[John David Redux]

02:20 PM on 07/07/2011

If you'll notice, everyone on the list is a novelist or a poet. Winchester is neither.

[Jessica Epstein]

11:00 AM on 07/08/2011

But he is British and an author, right?

[hachmom]

07:56 AM on 07/07/2011

J K Rowling and J R R TOlkien arent on the list? Between them they have probably been read by more Americans than anyone on the list except maybe Dickens.

[John David Redux]

02:20 PM on 07/07/2011

Which testified to the fact that most Americans are stupid.

[AJOHMSS]

06:23 AM on 07/07/2011

I realize I've come late to the post and these names have probably already been mentioned but how can you have a list of British authors that excludes Eric Blair (George Orwell) and Dylan Thomas?

[melissalynn]

03:01 AM on 07/07/2011

Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte??? This list is dominated by men!

[doughnut70]

10:29 PM on 07/06/2011

JK Rowling!

[IowaGirl]

09:54 PM on 07/06/2011

For god's sake: neither Kingsley Amis nor his son Martin? No Muriel Spark? Margaret Drabble? Penelope Fitzgerald?

[beautifuldreamer]

06:06 PM on 07/06/2011

Muriel Spark
Peter Dickinson
John Wyndham
Penelope Fitzgerald
Robert Aickman
Derek Walcott
Angus Wislon
Angela Carter