25 Writers of the Future

Last month Waterstone's Bookstore produced a list of 100 favourite books by polling its staff as part of its celebration of 25 years in business. The clever promotions continue this month with another list, this time of British authors. I've reproduced the press release below.

Booksellers named 25 British authors who they expect to entertain, enlighten and enthrall readers for the next quarter century.

Bookseller Waterstone's, which published the list to celebrate its 25th anniversary, said it had asked for nominations by editors, literary agents and publishers and got more than 100 suggested names."We received a wonderful and eclectic array of nominations covering all tastes and genres," said Gerry Johnson, managing director of Waterstone's."It was incredibly tough to choose just 25 of them, but I think our final list includes a sparkling selection of talent -- these authors will be on the bestseller and the awards lists for years to come."

Following is a list of the authors named:

-- Naomi Alderman
-- Susanna Clarke
-- Siobhan Dowd
-- Jasper Fforde
-- Julia Golding
-- Emily Gravett
-- Steven Hall
-- Jane Harris
-- Peter Hobbs
-- Marina Lewycka
-- Robert Macfarlane
-- Gautam Malkani
-- Jon McGregor
-- Charlotte Mendelson
-- Richard Morgan
-- Maggie O'Farrell
-- Helen Oyeyemi
-- Jo Pratt
-- Dominic Sandbrook
-- CJ Sansom
-- Chris Simms
-- Nick Stone
-- Louise Welsh
-- Ben Wilson
-- Robyn Young

It might be a worthwhile exercise to do our own nomination of Australian authors who we think will dominate our own market over the next 25 years. From the crime genre I can think of a few right off the bat but I need a bit of help across the other genres. So how about it - send me your own nominations - across any genre, send 'em in and we'll see what we've got.