Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Edimburgo, 1859- Crowborough, 1930) fue médico, novelista y un destacado miembro de los círculos espiritistas ingleses. Su primera obra sobre Sherlock Holmes fue Estudio en escarlata (1887) y, aparte de la famosa serie detectivesca, escribió novelas históricas e incluso teatro.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) nació en el barrio londinense de Bromley, en el Reino Unido. Una beca le permitió estudiar en la Escuela Normal de Ciencias de Londres. Trabajó de contable, maestro de escuela y periodista hasta 1895, año en el que publicó su primera novela, La máquina del tiempo, donde ya aparecía la explosiva mezcla de ciencia, política y aventura que haría de sus libros un éxito. Desde su publicación pudo dedicarse en exclusiva a la escritura. Wells escribió más de ochenta libros a lo largo de su vida, entre los que destacan aquellas obras que contribuyeron a crear un género, la ciencia ficción: El hombre invisible (1897), La guerra de los mundos (1898) y La vida futura (1933), todas llevadas al cine en varias ocasiones. Además Wells escribió Kipps: la historia de un hombre sencillo, (1905) o La historia del señor Polly (1910), profundos retratos de su época; y novelas sociales como Tono-Bungay (1909) o Mr. Britling Sees it Through (1916). Tras la Primera Guerra Mundial publicó un ensayo histórico que se haría muy popular en el Reino Unido, Esquema de la historia (1920), así como la celebrada Breve historia del mundo (1922). El pesimismo y las dudas acerca de la supervivencia del ser humano en una sociedad que la tecnología no había sido capaz de mejorar impregnan sus últimas obras, por ejemplo, El destino del homo sapiens (1939) o 42 to 44 (1944).

Wilkie Collins nació en Londres en 1824 y murió en esa misma ciudad en 1889. Hijo del pintor paisajista William Collins, cursó estudios de derecho antes de dedicarse de lleno al oficio de escritor. En 1848 publicó una semblanza sobre la figura de su padre y, dos años más tarde, aparecía su primera novela, Antonina o la caída de Roma. Mantuvo una gran amistad con Charles Dickens, con quien colaboró en la novela El abismo, y trabajó largo tiempo en la búsqueda de formas narrativas renovadoras. Fruto de este esfuerzo literario son sus dos obras fundamentales: La dama de blanco (1859-1860) y La Piedra Lunar (1868). Maestro de la narrativa inglesa, su obra ha tenido admiradores y seguidores tan cualificados como Henry James, T.S. Eliot o Jorge Luis Borges.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (Bombay, 1865-Londres, 1936), autor de relatos y cuentos infantiles, novelista y poeta, se le recordará, sobre todo, por sus obras infantiles. Entre ellas, destacan El libro de la Selva (1894), el relato corto El hombre que pudo ser rey (1888), la novela de espionaje Kim (1901), y Puck de la colina de Pook (1906), algunos de ellos, llevados al cine. Después de rechazar el premio nacional de poesía Poet Laureat en 1895, la Order of Merit y el título de Sir de la Order of the British Empire, Kipling aceptó el Premio Nobel de Literatura de 1907 convirtiéndose en el ganador más joven hasta la fecha de este premio, y en el primer escritor británico en recibir este galardón.

Algernon Blackwood was a master of supernatural fiction, known for his ability to create a sense of unease and tension in his readers. His writing often explored the boundary between the natural and supernatural worlds, and the psychological impact of encountering the unknown.

"Frances Hodgson Burnett nació en Manchester (Inglaterra) en 1849. Su carrera literaria se inició en 1868 con colaboraciones en diversas revistas, pero no sería hasta dos años después de su matrimonio acontecido en 1873, cuando publicaría su primera novela The Lass o’Lowrie’s, una historia realista sobre la clase obrera de Lancashire que le valió el reconocimiento de la crítica. Sin embargo, El pequeño Lord fue la obra que realmente la consagró, su primera novela infantil que revolucionó Inglaterra y Norteamérica. Sus otras novelas infantiles más famosas y aclamadas son: La pequeña princesa (1905) y El jardín secreto (1910). Falleció el 29 de octubre de 1924, en Plandome, Nueva York, Estados Unidos"

Richard Marsh (1857–1915), born Richard Bernard Heldmann, was a prolific, bestselling author of fiction in the genres of horror, crime, and romance. Marsh began his career by writing adventure stories for magazines, later earning coeditorship of Union Jack magazine. The Beetle's release in 1897 proved to be Marsh's greatest commercial success, followed in 1900 by the publication of The Goddess: A Demon. Marsh went on to amass a bibliography of more than eighty books before his death.

Besides the Pollyanna books, Eleanor H. Porter (1868-1920) also wrote Miss Billie Married, Miss Billie’s Decision, Mary Marie, and Just David. Pollyanna Grows Up was on the 1915 bestseller’s list, along with these fiction titles available through Barnes & Noble World Digital Library: The Turmoil, by Booth Tarkington; K, by Mary Roberts Rinehart; and The Lone Star Ranger, by Zane Grey.

Autor del guión original de King-Kong. Con la aparición de la novela Los cuatro hombres justos dio inicio al moderno género del thriller. Escribió artículos, poesía, crítica teatral, novela, cuentos, cine y teatro. Hijo ilegítimo de un actor, fue bautizado como Edgar Wallace porque su madre usó el personaje ficticio de Walter Wallace para que figurase como padre. Polifacético y viajero, estuvo en contacto con el mundo del crimen de diferentes países: Sudafrica, Marruecos, el Congo,España, Inglaterra… De manera natural se acercó al mundo de la mafia: invitaba a comer a ex-presidiarios, estuvo asociado durante meses con ‘Ringer’ Barrie—un estafador del mundo de las carreras de caballos—y llegó a practicar la estafa por correo con el objetivo de estudiar sus técnicas, plasmadas en el artículo “Yo pude haber sido un delincuente con éxito”. También estuvo encargado de la seguridad del Palacio de Buckingham durante la Primera guerra mundial.

Carolyn Wells (1862–1942) was a poet, children's novelist, and author of mysteries. Born in New Jersey, she became famous for writing humorous nonsense verse, which was collected in The Nonsense Anthology (1902). She wrote more than 170 books, including sixty-one starring the detective Fleming Stone.

E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) published more than one hundred novels, which were mainly adventure-packed tales of international conspiracies. Among his works are The Man from Sing Sing, Jacob’s Ladder, The Modern Prometheus, and The Pawns Count.

Henry Maximilian Beerbohm, the essayist, caricaturist, critic, and short story writer who endures as one of Edwardian England's leading satirists, was born in London on August 24, 1872, into a large and prosperous family of Baltic German descent. Among his many diversely talented siblings were the author and explorer Julius Beerbohm, and his half brother the flamboyant actor and theatrical manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree. A sophisticated child who read Punch magazine and celebrated his tenth birthday with a glass of champagne, Max Beerbohm exhibited an adroit wit from an early age. While a student at Charterhouse school in Surrey, he amused masters and classmates with irreverent caricatures and prose parodies. Beerbohm entered Merton College, Oxford, at the age of eighteen and quickly gained a reputation as an aesthete and dandy. 'I was a modest, good-humored boy,' he recalled. 'It was Oxford that has made me insufferable.' Beerbohm's renown soon extended to London, where he was swept into Oscar Wilde's literary circle. In 1894 he contributed the satiric essay 'A Defense of Cosmetics' to the first issue of the Yellow Book, the controversial quarterly associated with the English decadents of the 1890s.Beerbohm won a large audience with the publication of The Works of Max Beerbohm (1896), his first volume of essays. The ultimate statement of his Yellow Book period, it includes a famous meditation on dandyism, along with a wry reminiscence of Oxford. Thereafter Beerbohm devoted himself to writing charming pieces about whatever topic struck his fancy. The essays collected in More (1899), Yet Again (1909), And Even Now (1920), and Variety of Things (1928) reflect his lifelong belief that good sense about trivialities is preferable to nonsense about important matters. 'What Mr. Beerbohm gave [to the essay] was, of course, himself,' noted Virginia Woolf in pinpointing his talent. 'He was affected by private joys and sorrows, and had no gospel to preach and no learning to impart. He was himself, simply and directly, and himself he has remained. Once again we have an essayist capable of using the essayist's most proper but most dangerous and delicate tool. He has brought personality into literature, not unconsciously and impurely, but so consciously and purely that we do not know whether there is any relation between Max the essayist and Mr. Beerbohm the man. We only know that the spirit of personality permeates every word that he writes. . . . He is without doubt the prince of his profession.'Beerbohm was also famous for his comic sketches of literary figures, politicians, and celebrities. Impudently he lampooned everyone from Oscar Wilde and Henry James to Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales. Explaining his recipe for caricature, Beerbohm stated: 'The whole man must be melted down in a crucible and then, from the solution, fashioned anew. Nothing will be lost but no particle will be as it was before.' He concluded: 'The most perfect caricature is that which, on a small surface, with the simplest means, most accurately exaggerates, to the highest point, the peculiarities of a human being, at his most characteristic moment, in the most beautiful manner.' Over the years he exhibited in London galleries and published several acclaimed volumes of drawings, including Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen (1896), The Poets' Corner (1904), Fifty Caricatures (1913), A Survey (1921), Rossetti and His Circle (1922), Things New and Old (1923), and Observations (1925). 'There is wit and barbed insight but no malice in [his] caricatures,' noted the Spectator. 'Beerbohm mocked only what he loved.'

Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868-1947) was a prolific author of fiction, biography, and drama, and the sister of the poet Hilaire Belloc. She is best remembered for The Lodger, a novel of suspense based on the Jack the Ripper murders.

James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) wrote belles lettres and fantasy fiction. Most popular in the 1920s, his escapist literature was well regarded by respected authors of his time. He lived by his quote in The Silver Stallion, "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."

Sax Rohmer was the acclaimed author of the Fu Manchu series of novels. The first, The Mystery of Fu Manchu, was published in 1912 with many more following. Rohmer also wrote more traditional detective stories and supernatural horror. He died in London in 1959.

Compton Mackenzie (1883–1972) was a writer, cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of the co-founders in 1928 of the Scottish National Party. He was knighted in 1952.

Born in Wapping, W.W. Jacobs was an English author of novels and short stories. Before finding the success to allow him to write full time, Jacobs worked as a civil servant for many years. While best known for his horror stories like "The Monkey's Paw" and "The Toll House", much of Jacob's work is actually humorous, including efforts like Many Cargoes, The Skipper's Wooing, and Sea Urchins. His output of stories slowed greatly after the First World War, and Jacobs began to primarily write adaptations of his own short stories for the stage. Jacobs passed away in 1943.

Max Pemberton is a practicing doctor. As well as a degree in Medicine, he completed a degree in Anthropology for which he was awarded a first and a prize for academic excellence. Max has worked in a broad range of medicine, from geriatrics, adult psychiatry, surgery and paediatric palliative care. He is also a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and Reader's Digest. In 2010, he was named Public Educator of the Year 2010 by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Deemed 'the father of the scientific detective story', Richard Austin Freeman enjoyed a prolific career that saw him gain qualifications as pharmacist and surgeon, pull off a diplomatic coup along the Gold Coast, work for Holloway Prison and then become a formidable writer of fiction. He was born in London, the son of a tailor who went on to train as a pharmacist. After graduating as a surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital Medical College, Freeman taught for a while and then joined the colonial service, offering his skills as an assistant surgeon along the Gold Coast of Africa. He became embroiled in a diplomatic mission when a British expeditionary party was sent to investigate the activities of the French. Through his tact and formidable intelligence, a massacre was narrowly avoided. His future was therefore assured in the colonial service. However, after becoming ill with black-water fever, Freeman was sent back to England to recover and finding his finances precarious, embarked on a career as acting physician in Holloway Prison. In desperation, he also turned to writing where he went on to dominate the world of British detective fiction, taking pride in testing different criminal techniques. So keen was he, part of one of his best novels was written in a bomb shelter. For the first twenty-five years of his writing career, Freeman was to dominate and remain unrivalled in the world of detective fiction, introducing the well-loved and highly memorable 'Dr Thorndyke'. The continued success of this character has affirmed Richard Austin Freeman's place amongst the finest of crime writers.

Rupert Hughes was an American novelist, film director, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, military officer, and music composer. He is best known for his three-part biography of George Washington: George Washington: The Human Being and the Hero, George Washington: The Rebel and the Patriot, and George Washington: Savior of the States.