Born in what is now Iran, Doris Lessing's family moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when she was little. It was a move that would flood her writing with a rare pathos in the years to come. Her childhood, a mix of pleasure and pain, played a role in all her major work. Her moment of greatness came in 1962 with The Golden Notebook, a narrative experiment that involved the multiple selves of a contemporary woman.

IAN MCEWAN

The author's crisp prose has been critically acclaimed for years, leading to a truckload of awards. He also won the Booker Prize for Amsterdam (1998), after being short listed three times. With the recent publication of Saturday, and the adaptation of Enduring Love into a film, McEwan is currently hot property. Then again, he has been for quite a while now.

Photograph: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Also See: Harry Potter Cast his Spell Again