Here are the top 100 novels written by Brits, according to the rest of the world. I am slightly ashamed to admit I have only read 55% of them, the ones marked with a tick. I am even more ashamed to see there is not one Welsh author in the list. And Virginia Woolf at nos. 2 & 3? Hilary Mantel way down at #44?

Hmmm. Who chose the judges?

The top eleven titles were all written before I was born. And I am OLD.

The BBC polled book critics outside the UK to give an outsider’s perspective on the best in British literature.

100. The Code of the Woosters (PG Wodehouse, 1938) √
99. There but for the (Ali Smith, 2011) X
98. Under the Volcano (Malcolm Lowry,1947) √
97. The Chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis, 1949-1954) X
96. Memoirs of a Survivor (Doris Lessing, 1974) X
95. The Buddha of Suburbia (Hanif Kureishi, 1990) X
94. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (James Hogg, 1824) X
93. Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954) √
92. Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons, 1932) √
91. The Forsyte Saga (John Galsworthy, 1922) √
90. The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins, 1859) √
89. The Horse’s Mouth (Joyce Cary, 1944) X
88. The Death of the Heart (Elizabeth Bowen, 1938) X
87. The Old Wives’ Tale (Arnold Bennett, 1908) X
86. A Legacy (Sybille Bedford, 1956) X
85. Regeneration Trilogy (Pat Barker, 1991-1995) √
84. Scoop (Evelyn Waugh, 1938) √
83. Barchester Towers (Anthony Trollope, 1857) √
82. The Patrick Melrose Novels (Edward St Aubyn, 1992-2012) X
81. The Jewel in the Crown (Paul Scott, 1966) X
80. Excellent Women (Barbara Pym, 1952) X
79. His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman, 1995-2000) √
78. A House for Mr Biswas (VS Naipaul, 1961) X
77. Of Human Bondage (W Somerset Maugham, 1915) √
76. Small Island (Andrea Levy, 2004) X
75. Women in Love (DH Lawrence, 1920) √
74. The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy, 1886) √
73. The Blue Flower (Penelope Fitzgerald, 1995) X
72. The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene, 1948) √
71. Old Filth (Jane Gardam, 2004) X
70. Daniel Deronda (George Eliot, 1876) X
69. Nostromo (Joseph Conrad, 1904) √
68. A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess, 1962) √
67. Crash (JG Ballard 1973) √
66. Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen, 1811) √
65. Orlando (Virginia Woolf, 1928) X
64. The Way We Live Now (Anthony Trollope, 1875) √
63. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark, 1961) X
62. Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945) √
61. The Sea, The Sea (Iris Murdoch, 1978) X
60. Sons and Lovers (DH Lawrence, 1913) X
59. The Line of Beauty (Alan Hollinghurst, 2004) X
58. Loving (Henry Green, 1945) X
57. Parade’s End (Ford Madox Ford, 1924-1928) X
56. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (Jeanette Winterson, 1985) √
55. Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift, 1726) √
54. NW (Zadie Smith, 2012) X
53. Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966) X
52. New Grub Street (George Gissing, 1891) X
51. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy, 1891) √
50. A Passage to India (EM Forster, 1924) √
49. Possession (AS Byatt, 1990) √
48. Lucky Jim (Kingsley Amis, 1954) √
47. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne, 1759) √
46. Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie, 1981) X
45. The Little Stranger (Sarah Waters, 2009) √
44. Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel, 2009) √
43. The Swimming Pool Library (Alan Hollinghurst, 1988) X
42. Brighton Rock (Graham Greene, 1938) √
41. Dombey and Son (Charles Dickens, 1848) X
40. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865) √
39. The Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes, 2011) X
38. The Passion (Jeanette Winterson, 1987) X
37. Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh, 1928) √
36. A Dance to the Music of Time (Anthony Powell, 1951-1975) X
35. Remainder (Tom McCarthy, 2005) X
34. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005) √
33. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, 1908) X
32. A Room with a View (EM Forster, 1908) √
31. The End of the Affair (Graham Greene, 1951) √
30. Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe, 1722) √
29. Brick Lane (Monica Ali, 2003) √
28. Villette (Charlotte Brontë, 1853) X
27. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1719) √
26. The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien, 1954) √
25. White Teeth (Zadie Smith, 2000) √
24. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing, 1962) X
23. Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895) X
22. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Henry Fielding, 1749) √
21. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad, 1899) √
20. Persuasion (Jane Austen, 1817) √
19. Emma (Jane Austen, 1815) X
18. Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989) √
17. Howards End (EM Forster, 1910) √
16. The Waves (Virginia Woolf, 1931) X
15. Atonement (Ian McEwan, 2001) √
14. Clarissa (Samuel Richardson,1748) √
13. The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford, 1915) X
12. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949) √
11. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813) √
10. Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848) √
9. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818) X
8. David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1850) √
7. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847) X
6. Bleak House (Charles Dickens, 1853) √
5. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847) X
4. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861) √
3. Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925) X
2. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf, 1927) X
1. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1874) √

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