1.	The oldest literary

2.	The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

3.	After the Battle of Hastings

4.	In the Middle Ages

4.1	William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow

4.2	Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw

5.

Poets

5.1.	Lord Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley

5.2.	Elizabeth Barret Browning, Robert Browning

6.	English novelists

6.1.	Daniel Defoe

6.2.	Jonathan Swift

6.3.	Sir Walter Scott

6.4.	Robert Louis Stevenson

6.5.	The Bronte sisters

6.6.	Charles Dickens

6.7.	Rudyard Kipling

6.8.	George Herbert Wells

6.9.	Agatha Christie

6.10.

P. D. James

6.11.

Dick Francis

"The oldest literary work of the English literature is Beowulf, an old English poem about historical events in Denmark in the first half of the 6th century. It is perhaps the earliest considerable poem in any modern language. The manuscript of the last 10th century is housed in the British Museum.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, inspired by King Alfred the Great and compiled by monks working in various places, is a chronological record of events in England from the Christian era to the middle of the 12th century. A very important literary means of Old English literature was alliteration.
After the Battle of Hastings in 1066 the development of Old English literature was interrupted by the Normans. It took about 300 years for thee Anglo-Saxon and Norman cultures to blend. The first important representative of the new Middle Ages literature was Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of Canterbury Tales.
In the Middle Ages, more exactly since the 16th century, there began a strong and flourishing tradition of drama and theatre in England. This development culminated in the work of William Shakespeare. Before Shakespeare there was Christopher Marlow and his play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, which inspired Goethe to write his Faust or his play The Jew of Malta. William Shakespeare is known as the best representative of English drama of all times.
Other significant English playwrights were e.g. Oscar Wilde (The Importance of being Earnest, Lady Windermere’s Fan) or George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion, Major Barbara. St. Joan.)
England had many poets, too. Of all of them I would like to mention at least Lord Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Robert Browning.
But it was perhaps English novels that made the most significant contribution to world literature. There are many famous name among English novelists, e.g. Daniel Defoe who wrote Robinson Crusoe, Jonathan Swift and his Gulliver’s Travels, Sir Walter Scott – famous for his historical novels such as Ivanhoe, Waverley, Rob Roy, Kenilworth, Quentin Durward and others, Robert Louis Stevenson with his Treasure Island or The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Bronte sisters (Emily, Charlotte, Anne) with their romantic and thrilling stories or novels (e.g. Jane Eyre, which is the best one), Charles Dickens, whose books (e.g. Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations) were made into films, Rudyard Kipling – the author of the world famous Jungle Nook or Thomas Hardy and his gloomy, sad novels from the English country, some of them were put on the screen (Under the Greenwood Tree, Tess d’Urbervilles) or George Herbert Wells – the founder of science fiction."