British author Aldous Huxley gives a bleak view of a science-based future in his novel Brave New World

John Cowper Powys's novel A Glastonbury Romance is published first in New York

H.G. Wells publishes The Shape of Things to Come, a novel in which he accurately predicts a renewal of world war

The Pylon group of British poets get their name from Stephen Spender's poem 'The Pylons'

English author Antonia White publishes an autobiographical first novel, Frost in May

In Down and Out in Paris and London English author George Orwell writes a sympathetic account of the people he meets on hard times

In I, Claudius the autobiography of the Roman emperor is ghost-written by Robert Graves

In A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh sends his hero Tony Last to a disastrous fate, far away in the Amazon rain forest

T.S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral has its first performance in Canterbury cathedral

British publisher Allen Lane launches a paperback series to which he gives the name Penguin Books

John Maynard Keynes defines his economics in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

In Language, Truth and Logic 26-year-old A.J. Ayer produces a classic exposition of Logical Positivism

Terence Rattigan's first play, French without Tears, is performed in London

C.S. Forester's central character, Horatio Hornblower, features for the first time – in The Happy Return

George Orwell reveals the harsh realities of contemporary British life in The Road to Wigan Pier

British author Evelyn Waugh publishes a classic Fleet Street novel, Scoop, introducing Lord Copper, proprietor of The Beast

In Homage to Catalonia George Orwell describes his experiences fighting for the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War

British author Graham Greene publishes Brighton Rock, a novel following 17-year-old Pinkie in the criminal underworld of the seaside town

Maxim de Winter's house, Manderley, holds dark secrets in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca

W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood emigrate together to the USA, later becoming US citizens

Irish author Flann O'Brien publishes his first novel, At Swim-Two-Birds

British author Christopher Isherwood publishes his novel Goodbye to Berlin, based on his own experiences in the city

T.S. Eliot gives cats a poetic character in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is rejected by numerous publishers before becoming, decades later, his best-known novel

British author Rebecca West publishes an account of Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon