British Author's Hard to Find Over the Pond

I'm going to be going to the UK soon, and I want to pick up some good British fiction that isn't easy to find in the US. Any suggestions?

Difficult to answer -- British residents don't know what's scarce in the US, and Americans presumably don't know what they're missing...

Looking at your library, I wonder if you might enjoy Barbara Pym? 1950s, spinsters, teashops, funny in a very restrained and understated, but rather clever, way.

Also, you seem to have a lot of A.S. Byatt, but nothing by her sister, Margaret Drabble. I can't imagine that she is hard to find in the US, though.

What about Patrick Gale -- is he known in the US?

If you feel like some fantasy to compliment those we share I can recommened Janny Wurts who I believe is hard to find in US bookshops, although she is a US author.

AListair Reynolds as a UK author who writes some really good SF though that might not be your thing.

Yea I find it's hard sometimes to find copies of books
by Catherine Aird. However I mainly have her books in
Paperback and a few hard backs too. Catherine Aird is
one of my favourite British Mystery writers along with
Ruth Rendell a.k.a. Barbara Vine, Jeffrey Archer, Agatha Christie, P.D. James etal.

Librarianwannabe

I discovered Nicola Barker's The Behindlings when I was in London a number of years ago and was disappointed to find her books so difficult to find here. Her new novel, Darkmans, is getting great reviews and is readily available, but the backlist is still hard to find.

The Duncton Wood series was highly recommended to me for bedtime reading with my kids, and for them to read on their own as they grow older. But they are very hard to find here, used or otherwise; especially the later books in the series. For the second book (Duncton Quest), I just had to pay the shipping from UK (more than the cost of the book). However, the total cost for a good hardcopy was still not out of line.

Os.