Writers?

[Lucky13]

Being that we're a somewhat international bunch here, which are the most famous writers from your respective country?
Plus, which would be the best book(s), on your country's history?

 

[MiTasol]

You like to ask difficult questions don't you.

Writers probably
Colleen McCullough for her Caesar series - well worth the read
Bryce Courtney though he also wrote some crap

Books on Australian history? I honestly cannot recommend any. Those with the detail will put you to sleep very fast and those that are readable are pretty ordinary on facts.

There is one readable history author but for the life of me I cannot remember his name but his autobiography is called something like Before I forget

Edit Found it - too many other books with same similar names Before I Forget by Geoffrey Blainey. Those on the left call him conservative and those on the right call him a lefty so I guess he is an equally opportunity author.

 

[GrauGeist]

wow...tough question.
We have a good many accomplished authors all across the genre's here in the states.
Like Hemingway, Twain, Poe, Steinbeck, Melville, Emmerson, London, Dickenson to King, Bradbury, Rodenbury, Aasimov, Heinlein, Cherryh, McCaffrey, Burrows, Lovecraft and so on.

 

[Crimea_River]

Margaret Atwood is probably the most famous Canadian author these days. For Canadian history, Pierre Burton.

 

[tomo pauk]

Old school - Miroslav Krleža, August Šenoa, Ivan Raos, Marija Jurić Zagorka, Ivana Brlić Mažuranić; Miljenko Smoje is in-between generation? Of the 'new' authors, Ante Tomić, Goran Tribuson, Pavao Pavliček.
(underscored are my favorites; Zagorka and Krleža wrote a lot of fiction set in the pre-1990s Croatia)
About history books - non-fictional 'Povijest hrvata' by Klaić.

 

[GrauGeist]

It's interesting to see the name Zagorka, as Загорка is one of my favorite beers (brewed in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria).

 

[WARSPITER]

Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson wrote a lot about life in Australia but that was along time ago. Paterson wrote the poem "The Man From Snowy River" which is
now part of Aussie folklore and has been made into a movie.

More recently though are two good books by Peter Fitzsimons - Tobruk and Kokoda. Both give a 'feel' for what the troops had to go through as well as
being reasonably accurate.

 

[Peter Gunn]

For the U.S. if you want to know about our Civil War, Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote to name two.

On a more focused scale, Steven Zaloga and his book "Armored Thunderbolt", it puts to rest a lot of the Sherman tank myths.

 

[fubar57]

Although he was born and died in England, the late Donald Jack did all his writing in Canada. His 9 part book series, "The Bandy Papers" is hilarious. I've read the first 7