When he joined the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round in 1957, Alan Ayckbourn was set on being an actor. Little did he know he would become one of England's most successful and well-respected playwrights; in fact, he would go on to become the first living playwright to be knighted since Noel Coward.

Clean, Contemporary plays, Domestic, Playful, Quirky, Witty

Junichiro Tanizaki wrote erotically and ironically about the dynamics of Japanese culture and the effect of Western influences on tradition. In a style that is delicate and emotionally powerful, Tanizaki's narratives progress through dialogue and careful description without an omniscience narrator. T

Clean, Erotic, Intense, Ironic, Modernist literature, Perverse

Little is known about Maurice Blanchot except that he wrote an odd style of fiction. His novels are not really novels, his stories barely stories. His prose is very French in that it can be almost mathematical, yet it simultaneously evokes the most intense feelings of loss, misunderstanding, joy, and

Clean, Death, Deconstructive, Discourse as event, Dreamy, Elegant, Ethereal, Intimate, Literature of transgression, Mathematical

According to Critic JoAnn Cannon, the key to Italo Calvino's renowned final novel, "Mr. Palomar" (1983), lies in several innovative literary ideas outlined in three essays written in the 1950s (and now included in the 1982 collection "Una pietra sopa"). These essays grappled with his contemporaries'

Clean, Eclectic, Experimental, Layered, Postmodern fiction, Spare, Surreal