List of British Jewish writers includes writers (novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists, authors of scholarly texts and others) from the United Kingdom and its predecessor states who are or were Jewish or of Jewish descent.
Authors, A–J Ben Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964) author and screenwriter; author of the Rivers of London series of novels; also wrote two Doctor Who serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from Doctor Who and Blake's 7; brother of neo-conservative hawkish journalist David Aaronovitch; son of economist Sam Aaronovitch who was senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and younger brother of Coronation Street actor Owen Aaronovitch. Tobias Abse historian, author focusing on Jewish history, fascism, Marxism, socialism; lecturer at Goldsmiths College of the University of London; has written extensively on rise of the Fascist Right in Italy prior to World War II; member of Socialist Alliance National Executive, the Alliance for Green Socialism National Committee, the Socialist History Society committee and the Revolutionary History editorial board and is regular contributor to socialist newspapers and magazines such as Radical Philosophy, The Weekly Worker, the paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Marxists Internet Archive; son of the Labour MP and social reformer Leo Abse (1917–2008); of Polish Jewish ancestry. Gerhard Adler (14 April 1904 – 23 December 1988) of German Jewish ancestry, was a major figure in the world of analytical psychology who had a significant effect on popular culture in England; known for his translation into English from the original German and editorial work on the Collected Works of Carl Gustav Jung. Grace Aguilar (2 June 1816 – 16 September 1847) was an English novelist, poet and writer on Jewish history and religion. Although she had been writing since childhood, much of her work was published posthumously. Among those are her best known works, the novels Home Influence and A Mother's Recompense. Geoffrey Alderman (born 10 February 1944) historian that specialises in 19th and 20th centuries Jewish community in England; also a political adviser and journalist; although he is a Conservative Zionist supporter of Israel with controversial views on Palestinians, Alderman has made guest appearances on Iran's PressTV channel. In 2011, he made four such appearances and donated his appearance fees of £300 to Israel. Of Alderman's dozen or so books, the best-known is Modern British Jewry (second edition, 1998, OUP). He has also written for the New Dictionary of National Biography, with special responsibility for post-1800 Jewish entries, and for The Guardian and The Jewish Chronicle. He is a columnist for the Jewish Telegraph. Naomi Alderman novelist, winner of the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers; daughter of Geoffrey Alderman Rose Allatini novelist. (Also wrote under the names A.T. Fitzroy, Lucian Wainwright and Eunice Buckley.) Simon Amstell (born 29 November 1979), comedian, scriptwriter, screenwriter for television and radio and director : wrote and directed the films Carnage (2017) and Benjamin (2018). His work on television has included presenting Popworld and Never Mind the Buzzcocks; co-wrote episode of Channel 4 teenage drama Skins. Mick Anglo (born Maurice Anglowitz, 19 June 1916 – 31 October 2011) of Russian Jewish ancestry,Holland, Steve, "Who's Who in British Comics", Comics World No. 43, Aceville Publications Ltd (September–October 1995) was a British comic book writer, editor and artist, as well as an author. He is best known for creating the superhero Marvelman, later known as Miracleman, a character later revived in 1982 in a dark, post-modern reboot by writer Alan Moore, with later contributions by Neil Gaiman. Lisa Appignanesi (born 4 January 1946) writer, novelist, campaigner for free expression; was Chair of the Royal Society of Literature; former President of English PEN; Chair of Freud Museum; chaired 2017 Booker International Prize; Honorary Fellow of St Benet's Hall, Oxford and visiting professor in the Department of English at King's College London, and held a Wellcome Trust; has written for The New York Review of Books, The Guardian and The Observer, as well as making programmes and appearing on the BBC; was Director of Talks and Seminars at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London; was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to literature. She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2015 and became the Chair of the Royal Society of Literature Council in 2016. Neal Ascherson (born 5 October 1932) journalist and writer; described by Radio Prague as "one of Britain's leading experts on central and eastern Europe". Ascherson is the author of several books on the history of Poland and Ukraine; work has appeared in The Guardian ; contributed scripts for the documentary series The World at War (1973–74) and the Cold War (1998). He has also been a regular contributor to the London Review of Books. Gilad Atzmon, Israeli-British Holocaust denier, agent provocateur, author, writer, prolific blogger, saxophonist for the Blockheads and Pink Floyd; bebop jazz musician of Israeli birth and Ashkenazi origin. David Baddiel (born 28 May 1964) comedian, op-ed writer, broadcaster and author of over ten books, including Jews Don't Count, which is about antisemitism, under-representation in popular media, double standards against, exclusion of, and ethnic or racial prejudice against Jews in Britain. Ivor Baddiel, brother of David Baddiel scriptwriter and author. He regularly writes for some of the biggest shows on British television including The BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards), The X Factor and The National Television Awards. Ivor is also the author of nineteen books for both children and adults. Sir Michael Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) prolific author and film producer known for leadership of Ealing Studios, one of the most important British film studios; known for his leadership, and his guidance of Alfred Hitchcock;co-founded Gainsborough Pictures, later working with Gaumont British and MGM-British; chairman of the British Film Institute; grandfather of Daniel Day-Lewis. Michael Balint (; 3 December 1896 – 31 December 1970) Hungarian Jewish psychoanalyst convert to Christianity who spent most of his adult life in England. He was a proponent of the Object Relations school and author of numerous academic texts and monographs on psychiatry; was attached to the Tavistock Clinic; in 1968 Balint became president of the British Psychoanalytical Society; his wife was noted psychoanalyst and author, Enid Balint, who directed British Psychoanalytical Society (now Institute of Psychoanalysis). A volume of her papers, Before I was I: Psychoanalysis and the Imagination, was published in 1993. Simon Baron-Cohen (b.1958); clinical psychologist ; professor of developmental psychopathology at University of Cambridge; director of the university's Autism Research Centre and a Fellow of Trinity College; was knighted for services to people with autism; was awarded the Medical Research Council (MRC) Millennium Medal; He is the 2026 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology. brother of Sacha Baron Cohen Zygmunt Bauman (19 November 1925 – 9 January 2017) highly influential Polish Jewish writer, sociologist and philosopher, writing on postmodern consumerism and liquid modernity. Peter Benenson (born Peter James Henry Solomon; 31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005) British lawyer, writer, pamphleteer, human rights activist and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International (AI); accepted the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001 though he later rejected and denounced Amnesty International for its criticism of Israel. Benenson was the son of British-born Harold Solomon and Russian-born Flora Benenson, grandson of Russian financier Grigori Benenson (1860–1939); served in Intelligence Corps at the Ministry of Information and worked at Bletchley Park during World War II as a cryptographer.COLOSSUS B.Jack Copeland and others. Page 253. Oxford University Press. Paperback edition 2010. Leila Berg (12 November 1917 – 17 April 2012) was an English children's author, editor and play specialist. She was well known as a journalist and a writer on education and children's rights. Berg was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award. John Berger, Jewish father, convert to Roman Catholicism, (5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. Berger's essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, is known as a foundation text employing deconstruction and feminist prisms of epistemology and ontology, questioning axiomatic assumptions about gender, racial prejudice and Orientalism, whilst introducing and debating prisms of Psychological projection, Reification (Marxism), False Consciousness, Commodity fetishism, Marx's theory of alienation and essentialism. He was a supporter of the Palestinian cause, and, focused on Israel and apartheid, a member of the Support Committee of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. Joseph Berke M.D. (17 January 1939 – 11 January 2021) was an American–born psychotherapist, author of over ten books and lecturer; studied at Columbia College of Columbia University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine; moved to London where he worked with R. D. Laing when Philadelphia Association was being established; was resident at Kingsley Hall;Mary-Barnes obituary from telegraph.co.uk later became an artist and writer; collaborated on a number of projects with Laing, including the Dialectics of Liberation international conference in London; co-founder of the Arbours Association in London and founder and director of Arbours Crisis Centre (1973–2010) in London. He was the author of many articles and books on psychological, social, and religious themes. J. D. Bernal (10 May 1901 – 15 September 1971) was an Irish scientist of Sephardi ancestry who pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography in molecular biology, published on the history of science, wrote popular books on science and society; was a communist activist and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB); his book The World, the Flesh and the Devil called "the most brilliant attempt at scientific prediction ever made" by Arthur C. Clarke. cited in It is famous for having been the first to propose the so-called Bernal sphere, a type of space habitat intended for permanent residence. The second chapter explores radical changes to human bodies and intelligence and the third discusses the impact of these on society. Martin Bernal author and leading pioneer in the creation of Pan-African studies, of Sephardi ancestry, most famous for his work Black Athena. Drusilla Beyfus (1927–2026) was a British etiquette writer. She was married to the journalist and critic Milton Shulman. Julie Bindel (born 20 July 1962) English radical feminist writer of Roman Catholic and Jewish ancestry. Lajos Bíró, 22 August 1880 – 9 September 1948, was a Hungarian Jewish author, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who wrote many films from the early 1920s through the late 1940s.