Feeding America

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeding_America 

Feeding America

Formation	1979
Founder	John van Hengel
Type	Nonprofit
Headquarters	35 East Wacker, Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates	41°53′11″N 87°37′36″W
Region served	United States
Membership	200 food banks
CEO	Claire Babineaux-Fontenot
Main organ	Board of directors
Website	www.feedingamerica.org

Feeding America is a United States–based nonprofit organization that is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies. Forbes ranks it as the second largest U.S. charity by revenue. Feeding America was known as America's Second Harvest until August 31, 2008.

History

In the late 1960s, when John van Hengel, a retired businessman in Phoenix, Arizona, began volunteering at a local soup kitchen, he began soliciting food donations for the kitchen. He ended up with far more food than the kitchen could use in its operations. Around this time, he spoke with one of the clients, who told him that she regularly fed her family with discarded items from the grocery store's garbage bins. She told him that the food quality was fine, but that there should be a place where unwanted food could be stored and later accessed by people who needed it, similar to how banks store money.

Van Hengel began to actively solicit this unwanted food from grocery stores, local gardens, and nearby produce farms. His effort led to the creation of St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, the nation's first food bank.

In 1975, St. Mary's was given a federal grant to assist in developing food banks across the nation. This effort was formally incorporated into a separate non-profit organization in 1976.

In 2001, America's Second Harvest merged with Foodchain, which was the nation's largest food-rescue organization at that time.

In 2005, Feeding America began using an internal market with an artificial currency called "shares" to more rationally allocate food. Currency is allocated based on the need, and then individual banks bid on which foods they want the most, based on local knowledge and ability to transport and store the food offered. Negative prices are possible, so banks could earn shares by picking up undesirable food. The previous centrally planned system had penalized banks for refusing any food offered, even if it was the wrong type to meet their needs, and this resulted in misallocations ("sending potatoes to Idaho"), food rotted away in places that didn't need it, and the wrong types of food being delivered (e.g. not matching hot dogs with hot dog buns).

In May 2007, it was featured on American Idol, named as a charity in the Idol Gives Back charity program.

In September 2008, the organization name was changed to Feeding America.

In August 2009, Columbia Records announced that all U.S. royalties from Bob Dylan's album Christmas in the Heart would be donated to Feeding America, in perpetuity.

There has been a rise in the numbers suffering from hunger since the financial crisis of 2007–2008. In 2013, the USDA reported that about 49 million U.S. Americans were facing the condition, about one in six of the population. In September, they launched Hunger Action Month, with events planned all over the nation, to raise awareness and get more U.S. Americans involved in helping out.

In 2015, Feeding America saved more than 2 billion pounds (~907 metric tons) of food that would have been thrown away otherwise, but could instead be distributed to hungry families.

In 2018, the USDA announced that food insecurity had been steadily declining since the 2009 recession ended. In 2020, Feeding America said that there are about 11 million children suffering from hunger in the United States. Children, along with families and seniors having trouble making ends meet, are suffering the most.

Leadership

Bob Aiken was its first CEO. Matt Knott was its interim-CEO in 2015. On October 1, 2015, Diana Aviv became its second CEO. On October 1, 2018, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot became its third CEO.

Network programs

Feeding America works to educate the general public and keep them informed about hunger in America. The national office produces educational and research papers that spotlight aspects of hunger and provides information on hunger, poverty and the programs that serve vulnerable Americans. Feeding America's public policy staff works with legislators, conducting research, testifying at hearings and advocating for changes in public attitudes and laws that support Feeding America's network and those the organization serves.

In 2017, Feeding America announced a plan to increase the nutritional value of food from food banks. By 2023, the group plans to offer more fruits and vegetables, and provide training so they can distribute more produce, whole grains and lean proteins.

There are more than 200 Feeding America food banks, each of which is "notable" for the work it does in its own area. A complete and current, list is available at the Feeding America web site. These are just a few of the banks in the network:

• Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland, California
• Arkansas Foodbank Network in Little Rock, Arkansas
• Atlanta Community Food Bank in metro Atlanta and north Georgia
• Banco de Alimentos de Puerto Rico in Bayamón, Puerto Rico
• Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado
• Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C.
• Community Action Services and Food Bank in Provo, Utah
• Community Food Bank of Central Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama
• Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona in Tucson, Arizona
• Connecticut Food Bank in East Haven, Connecticut
• Feeding America San Diego in San Diego, California
• Feeding South Florida in Pembroke Park, Florida
• Feeding Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida
• Feeding the Gulf Coast, Theodore, Alabama serving the central Gulf Coast
• Feeding America West Michigan in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Food Bank for Larimer County in Fort Collins, Colorado
• Foodlink in Rochester, New York
• Food Bank For New York City in New York City
• Food Bank of Alaska, Inc. in Anchorage, Alaska
• Food Bank of Delaware in Delaware
• Food Lifeline in Seattle, Washington
• Forgotten Harvest in Metro Detroit
• Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati, Ohio
• Gleaners Community Food Bank in Southeastern Michigan
• Good Shepherd Food Bank in Maine
• Greater Boston Food Bank in Boston, Massachusetts
• Greater Chicago Food Depository in Chicago, Illinois
• Harvest Hope in Columbia, South Carolina
• Hawaii Foodbank, Inc. in Honolulu, Hawaii
• Houston Food Bank in Houston, Texas
• North Texas Food Bank in Dallas, Texas
• Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh, NC
• Philabundance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Redwood Empire Food Bank in northern California
• Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services in Sacramento, California
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo County in Silicon Valley, California
• Second Harvest Food Bank in Irvine, California
• Second Harvest Food Bank in southern Louisiana
• Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio in Lorain, Ohio
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee in Kingsport, Tennessee
• Second Harvest Inland Northwest in Spokane, Washington
• Second Harvest North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida
• St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona
• Vermont Foodbank in Barre, Vermont
• Virginia Peninsula Food Bank in Hampton Roads, Virginia

Food rescue

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_rescue 

 

Food rescued from being thrown away

 

Food rescue, also called food recovery or food salvage, is the practice of gleaning edible food that would otherwise go to waste from places such as restaurants, grocery stores, produce markets, or dining facilities and distributing it to local emergency food programs.

The recovered food is edible, but often not sellable. Products that are at or past their "sell by" dates or are imperfect in any way such as a bruised apple or day-old bread are donated by grocery stores, food vendors, restaurants, and farmers markets. Other times, the food is unblemished, but restaurants may have made or ordered too much or may have good pieces of food (such as scraps of fish or meat) that are byproducts of the process of preparing foods to cook and serve. Also, food manufacturers may donate products that marginally fail quality control, or that have become short-dated.

Organizations that encourage food recovery, food rescue, sharing, gleaning and similar waste-avoidance schemes come under the umbrella of food banks, food pantries or soup kitchens.

Details

In most cases, the rescued food is being saved from being thrown into a dumpster and, ultimately, landfills or other garbage disposals. Food recovered on farms is kept from being plowed under. On farms, the donations often must be harvested, or gleaned, by volunteers. Also, to help rescue food that would otherwise be wasted, the USDA has expanded their Farm Storage Facility Loan Program. The Farm Storage Facility Loan Program helps farmers obtain low-cost loans for more farm storage so they can protect more food from becoming waste.

In the United States, businesses that source food rescue programs have received tax benefits for their donations and have been protected from liability lawsuits by the federal Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act since 1996.

The benefit of many food rescue programs is they offer healthy food to those in need but who may not meet the application requirements of state food-assistance programs. Many programs also provide immediate emergency assistance, without having to wait through an application process. Food rescue organizations are less restricted by cost and availability of food, as so much edible food is thrown out and free for the taking, so eligibility requirements are generally unnecessary. This organizational model often allows food rescues to provide nutritional assistance more quickly, with more flexibility and accessibility than other types of hunger relief programs.

At the individual level, food recovery is practiced by both freegans and by dumpster divers.

Food reuse strategies

There are various ways how people and organizations can rescue food that would otherwise go to a landfill. For example, United States Environmental Protection Agency recommends the following actions 

Source reduction

Reduce the amount of food that is generated and potentially wasted. Individuals can for example make shopping lists so they don't buy more food than they really need. 

Human consumption

Organizations can donate both non-perishable and unspoiled perishable food at the end of its shelf life, e. g. to food banks, food pantries, food rescue programs, homeless shelters, and other organizations. 

Food with no expiration dates but just past the 'best by' date by a couple months rescued from going to landfill and distributed to people who needed and wanted it

Feeding animals

Many animals can eat food scraps. Some farmers, solid waste collectors and recycling centers collect discarded food. 

Chickens eating food that would otherwise end up in the garbage

Industrial uses

Anaerobic Digestion is a conversion process that converts food waste into renewable energy. Food is separated from any packaging and broken down into a more digestible state and then it is mixed with bacteria in special oxygen free holding tanks. The bacteria work to break down the food waste converting it into methane biogas which can be used to generate electricity. 

Hydrothermal Liquefaction is the process of heating food waste under high pressure, converting the food waste into an oil that can then be refined into fuel. Once the initial liquefaction is complete, the watery waste left over then goes through anaerobic digestion where the microbes break down the waste into methane and carbon dioxide biogas. This biogas can be used for heat and electricity.

It is also possible to use fats, oils, grease, and meat products for rendering and biodiesel production. 

Composting

Add remaining food waste to an existing compost. Composting has many benefits over general waste landfills, including reduced methane gas production and improving the quality of the soil. 

Countries

Australia

In Australia, OzHarvest was launched in November 2004.

Canada

Canada's Second Harvest Toronto, in operation since 1985. BC's Squamish Helping Hands Society

Israel

Food rescue charities outside of the United States include Israel's Leket Israel-The National Food Bank

New Zealand

New Zealand's first food rescue organization is Kaibosh. Operating in Wellington, it was founded in August 2008. FoodShare, provides food rescue for the city of Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand commenced operations in March 2012. Fair Food [http://www.fairfood.org.nz) Auckland's first food rescue organisation founded in 2011, and KiwiHarvest operate in Auckland, and other organizations work in Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, and Christchurch.

Norway

A 2015 study listed 53 charitable organisations that are actively running food rescue programs in Norway. The largest donors are supermarkets (59%), followed by bakeries and other food producers. The distributors are mainly charitable organizations, mostly with a religious connection, like the Salvation Army and the Church City Mission. Most of the work is done by volunteers, without any salary. The receivers are mainly narcotic and alcohol addicts, but also include homeless, immigrants and victims of domestic violence. Most of the food is given away as prepared meals. More than one million meals are provided per year in the cities covered by the study. Other food is given away as bags of groceries.

Distribution of free food is often used as a method for charitable organizations to enter into contact with people who need help with drug abuse, psychological problems or similar. Volunteers often emphasize the importance of having spaces where users can pick up food with dignity and discretion, plus sometimes have a cup of coffee or a shower. Often, volunteers provide emotional support or help people with things unrelated to food acquisition, such as sharing work tips or helping immigrants with administrative tasks requiring knowledge of the Norwegian language.

The charities sometimes cooperate with each other by having a common food bank. This makes it easier to maintain steady supplies of diversified food to users.

Some users report that receiving free food may lead to stigmatization and thereby feelings of inferiority or social exclusion. To counter this, charities sometimes charge a low, symbolic price for the food, or offer food in exchange for participating in the work of preparing it.

Singapore

In Singapore the Foodbank Singapore is running their own Food rescue project, by collecting food excess in various places around the Islandstate.

United Kingdom

Some organizations, such as Fareshare in England, work directly with food manufacturers to minimize food wastage. In 2005 2,000 tonnes of food was saved from being wasted, This food was then redistributed to a community food network of 300 organizations. This food contributed to over 3.3 million meals to 12,000 disadvantaged people each day in 34 cities and towns across the UK.

USA

In America, numerous food rescue organizations pick up and deliver food in refrigerated trucks. Most are members of Feeding America, formerly America's Second Harvest. Recipient agencies serve people of low and no income. The EPA estimated that in 2015, the USA produced over 39 million tons of food waste.

The Society of St. Andrew is a volunteer-based gleaning nonprofit.

Some organizations, like Waste No Food, use technology to notify charities where and when excess food is available to aid in their food recovery efforts. 

Other nationally recognized food rescue organizations include City Harvest, La Soupe and Philabundance. 

A directory of food rescue organizations is maintained by Sustainable America.

Genre fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_fiction 

 

Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.

A number of major literary figures have written genre fiction. John Banville publishes crime novels as Benjamin Black, and both Doris Lessing, and Margaret Atwood have written science fiction. Georges Simenon, the creator of the Maigret detective novels, has been described by André Gide as "the most novelistic of novelists in French literature".

The main genres are crime, fantasy, romance, science fiction, Western, inspirational, historical fiction, and horror. More commercially oriented genre fiction has been dismissed by literary critics as poorly written.

Genre and the marketing of fiction

In the publishing industry the term "category fiction" is often used as a synonym for genre fiction, with the categories serving as the familiar shelf headings within the fiction section of a bookstore, such as Western or mystery. 

The uncategorized section is known in the industry as "general fiction", but in fact many of the titles in this usually large section are often themselves genre novels that have been placed in the general section because sellers believe they will appeal, due to their high quality or other special characteristics, to a wider audience beyond readers of that specific genre.

Some adult fans are embarrassed to read genre fiction in public. Some authors known for literary fiction have written novels under pseudonyms, while others have employed genre elements in literary fiction.

Romance fiction had an estimated $1.375 billion share in the US book market in 2007. Religion/inspirational literature followed with $819 million, science fiction/fantasy with $700 million, mystery with $650 million and then classic literary fiction with $466 million.

History of genres

Genre began as a classification system for ancient Greek literature. Poetry, prose, and drama had specific calculated styles that related to the theme of the story. Among the genres were the epic in poetry and tragedy and comedy for plays. In later periods other genres such as the chivalric romance, opera, and prose fiction developed.

Though the novel is often seen as a modern genre, Ian Watt, in The Rise of the Novel (1957) suggests that the novel first came into being in the early 18th century, it has also been described as possessing "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", from the time of both Classical Greece and Rome.

The "romance" is a closely related long prose narrative. Walter Scott defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society". However, many romances, including the historical romances of Scott, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, are also frequently called novels, and Scott describes romance as a "kindred term". Romance, as defined here, should not be confused with the genre fiction love romance or romance novel. Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo."

Genre fiction developed from various subgenres of the novel (and its "romance" version) during the nineteenth century, along with the growth of the mass-marketing of fiction in the twentieth century: this includes the gothic novel, fantasy, science fiction, adventure novel, historical romance, and the detective novel. Some scholars see precursors to the genre fiction romance novels in literary fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Samuel Richardson's sentimental novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) and the novels of Jane Austen such as Pride and Prejudice (1813).

The genres

The following are some of the main genres as they are used in contemporary publishing:

Crime

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals, and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, mystery fiction, and legal thrillers. Suspense and mystery are key elements to the genre.

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that uses magic or other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap among the three, all of which are subgenres of speculative fiction. Fantasy works frequently feature a medieval setting.

Romance

The romance novel or "romantic novel" primarily focuses on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." There are many subgenres of the romance novel including fantasy, historical, science fiction, same sex romantic fiction, and paranormal fiction. 

There is a literary fiction form of romance, which Walter Scott defined as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents".

According to Romance Writers of America's data, the most popular subgenres are: Romantic suspense, Contemporary romance, Historical romance, Erotic romance, Paranormal romance, Young adult romance, and Christian romance

• Other: Inspirational romance, chick-lit, Contemporary series romance, women's fiction, .

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a "literature of ideas". It usually eschews the supernatural, and unlike the related genre of fantasy, historically science fiction stories were intended to have at least pretense of science-based fact or theory at the time the story was created, but this connection has become tenuous or non-existent in much of science fiction.

Inspirational

Inspirational fiction has faith-based themes, which may overlap with Philosophical fiction or Theological fiction. It may be targeted at a specific demographic, such as Christians. Modern inspirational fiction has grown to encompass non-traditional subgenres, such as inspirational thrillers.

Horror

Horror fiction aims to frighten or disgust its readers. Although many horror novels feature supernatural phenomena or monsters, it is not required. Early horror took much inspiration from Romanticism and Gothic fiction. Modern horror, such as cosmic horror and splatterpunk, tends to be less melodramatic and more explicit. Horror is often mixed with other genres.

Critical reception and controversies

A number of major literary figures have written either genre fiction books, or books that contain genre fiction elements. For instance, the novel Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoevsky contains elements of the crime fiction genre. Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera is a romance novel. Frankenstein and Dracula are gothic horror novels. Graham Greene at the time of his death in 1991 had a reputation as a writer of both deeply serious novels on the theme of Catholicism, and of "suspense-filled stories of detection". Acclaimed during his lifetime, he was shortlisted in 1966 for the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel laureate André Gide stated that Georges Simenon, best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret, was "the most novelistic of novelists in French literature".

Stephen King was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters; but this polarized opinions and led to debate on genre fiction's literary merit. Negative comments about genre fiction have sparked responses from Time, Salon, the Atlantic, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Nobel laureate Doris Lessing described science fiction as "some of the best social fiction of our time", and called Greg Bear, author of Blood Music, "a great writer". 

In the 2000s, the BBC defended itself against charges that it had sneered at genre fiction, while the Man Booker and National Book Awards have been criticized for ignoring genre fiction in their selection process. 

Some critics have claimed that reading romance and suspense thrillers makes readers more sensitive, because these novels focus on interpersonal relationships.

19th-century British and Irish genre fiction

Sir John Barrow's descriptive 1831 account of the Mutiny on the Bounty immortalised the Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty and her people. The legend of Dick Turpin was popularised when the 18th-century English highwayman's exploits appeared in the novel Rookwood in 1834. 

Although pre-dated by John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River in 1841, the history of the modern fantasy genre is generally said to begin with George MacDonald, the influential author of The Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes (1858). William Morris was a popular English poet who also wrote several fantasy novels during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Wilkie Collins' epistolary novel The Moonstone (1868), is generally considered the first detective novel in the English language, while The Woman in White is regarded as one of the finest sensation novels. H. G. Wells's (1866–1946) writing career began in the 1890s with science fiction novels like The Time Machine (1895), and The War of the Worlds (1898) which describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians, and Wells is seen, along with Frenchman Jules Verne (1828–1905), as a major figure in the development of the science fiction genre. He also wrote realistic fiction about the lower middle class in novels like Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr Polly (1910). 

Penny dreadful publications were an alternative to mainstream works, and were aimed at working class adolescents, introducing the infamous Sweeney Todd. The premier ghost story writer of the 19th century was the Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu. His works include the macabre mystery novel Uncle Silas 1865, and his Gothic novella Carmilla 1872, tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire. The vampire genre fiction began with John William Polidori's "The Vampyre" (1819). This short story was inspired by the life of Lord Byron and his poem The Giaour. An important later work is Varney the Vampire (1845), where many standard vampire conventions originated: Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the neck of his victims, and has hypnotic powers and superhuman strength. Varney was also the first example of the "sympathetic vampire", who loathes his condition but is a slave to it. Bram Stoker, yet another Irish writer, was the author of seminal horror work Dracula and featured as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula, with the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing his arch-enemy. Dracula has been attributed to a number of literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, gothic novel and invasion literature.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Scotland of Irish parents but his Sherlock Holmes stories have typified a fog-filled London for readers worldwide

 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant London-based "consulting detective", famous for his intellectual prowess, skilful use of astute observation, deductive reasoning and forensic skills to solve difficult cases. Holmes' archenemy Professor Moriarty, is widely considered to be the first true example of a supervillain, while Sherlock Holmes has become a by-word for a detective. Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Holmes, from 1880 up to 1907, with a final case in 1914. All but four Conan Doyle stories are narrated by Holmes' friend, assistant, and biographer, Dr John H. Watson.

The Lost World literary genre was inspired by real stories of archaeological discoveries by imperial adventurers. H. Rider Haggard wrote one of the earliest examples, King Solomon's Mines in 1885. Contemporary European politics and diplomatic manoeuvrings informed Anthony Hope's swashbuckling Ruritanian adventure novels The Prisoner of Zenda 1894, and Rupert of Hentzau, 1898.

F. Anstey's comic novel Vice Versa 1882, sees a father and son magically switch bodies. Satirist Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat 1889, is a humorous account of a boating holiday on the river Thames. Grossmith brothers George & Weedon's Diary of a Nobody 1892, is also considered a classic work of humour.

20th-century genre fiction

Early 20th century

Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands (1903), defined the spy novel and Follett has also called it "the first modern thriller".

Emma Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel (1903) was originally a highly successful play, when staged in London in 1905. The novel The Scarlet Pimpernel was published soon after the play opened and was an immediate success. Orczy gained a following of readers in Britain and throughout the world. The popularity of the novel, which recounted the adventures of a member of the English gentry in the French Revolutionary period, encouraged her to write a number of sequels for her "reckless daredevil" over the next 35 years. The play was performed to great acclaim in France, Italy, Germany and Spain, while the novel was translated into 16 languages. Subsequently, the story has been adapted for television, film, a musical and other media. Baroness Orczy's character The Old Man in the Corner (1908) was among the earliest armchair detectives to be created. Her short stories about Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (1910) were an early example of a female detective as main character. 

John Buchan wrote the adventure novels on Prester John (1910) and four novels telling the adventures of Richard Hannay, of which the first, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) is the best known. Novels featuring a gentleman adventurer were popular in the interwar period, exemplified by the series of H. C. McNeile with Bulldog Drummond (1920), and Leslie Charteris, whose many books chronicled the adventures of Simon Templar, alias The Saint. 

Agatha Christie

 

The medievalist scholar M. R. James wrote highly regarded ghost stories (1904–1928) in contemporary settings. 

This was called the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Agatha Christie, a writer of crime novels, short stories and plays, is best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her successful West End theatre plays. Christie's works, particularly those featuring the detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre. Her most influential novels include The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926); one of her most controversial novels, its innovative twist ending had a significant impact on the genre), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937) and And Then There Were None (1939). Other female writers dubbed "Queens of crime" include Dorothy L. Sayers (gentleman detective, Lord Peter Wimsey), Margery Allingham (Albert Campion, supposedly created as a parody of Sayers' Wimsey) and New Zealander Ngaio Marsh (Roderick Alleyn). Georgette Heyer recreated the historical romance genre since 1921, and also wrote detective fiction (1932–1953).

J. R. R. Tolkien

 

A major work of science fiction, from the early 20th century, is A Voyage to Arcturus by Scottish writer David Lindsay, first published in 1920. It combines fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction in an exploration of the nature of good and evil and their relationship with existence. It has been described by critic and philosopher Colin Wilson as the "greatest novel of the twentieth century", and was a central influence on C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy. Also J. R. R. Tolkien said he read the book "with avidity", and praised it as a work of philosophy, religion, and morality. It was made widely available in paperback form when published as one of the precursor volumes to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in 1968. 

From the early 1930s to late 1940s, an informal literary discussion group associated with the English faculty at the University of Oxford, were the "Inklings". Its leading members were the major fantasy novelists; C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Lewis is known for The Screwtape Letters (1942), The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956) and The Space Trilogy (1938–1945), while Tolkien is best known as the author of The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), and The Silmarillion (1977).

Later 20th-century

In thriller writing, Ian Fleming created the character James Bond 007 in January 1952, while on holiday at his Jamaican estate, Goldeneye. Fleming chronicled Bond's adventures in twelve novels, including Casino Royale (1953), Live and Let Die (1954), Dr. No (1958), Goldfinger (1959), Thunderball (1961), The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), and nine short story works. 

In contrast to the larger-than-life spy capers of Bond, John le Carré was an author of spy novels who depicted a shadowy world of espionage and counter-espionage, and his best known novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), is often regarded as one of the greatest in the genre. Frederick Forsyth writes thriller novels, including The Day of the Jackal (1971), The Odessa File (1972), The Dogs of War (1974) and The Fourth Protocol (1984). Ken Follett writes spy thrillers, his first success being Eye of the Needle (1978), followed by The Key to Rebecca (1980), as well as historical novels, notably The Pillars of the Earth (1989), and its sequel World Without End (2007). Elleston Trevor is remembered for his 1964 adventure story The Flight of the Phoenix, while the thriller novelist Philip Nicholson is best known for Man on Fire. Peter George's Red Alert (1958), is a Cold War thriller.

War novels include Alistair MacLean thriller's The Guns of Navarone (1957), Where Eagles Dare (1968), and Jack Higgins' The Eagle Has Landed (1975). Patrick O'Brian's nautical historical novels feature the Aubrey–Maturin series set in the Royal Navy, the first being Master and Commander (1969). 

Ronald Welch's Carnegie Medal winning novel Knight Crusader is set in the 12th century and gives a depiction of the Third Crusade, featuring the Christian leader and King of England Richard the Lionheart. 

In crime fiction, the murder mysteries of Ruth Rendell and P. D. James are popular. 

Nigel Tranter wrote historical novels of celebrated Scottish warriors; Robert the Bruce in The Bruce Trilogy, and William Wallace in The Wallace (1975), works noted by academics for their accuracy.

Science fiction

Arthur C. Clarke

 

John Wyndham wrote post-apocalyptic science fiction, his most notable works being The Day of the Triffids (1951), and The Midwich Cuckoos (1957). George Langelaan's The Fly (1957), is a science fiction short story. Science fiction novelist Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), is based on his various short stories, particularly The Sentinel (1951). His other major novels include Rendezvous with Rama (1972), and The Fountains of Paradise (1979). Brian Aldiss is Clarke's contemporary. 

Michael Moorcock (born 1939) is a writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels. He was involved with the 'New Wave' of science fiction writers "part of whose aim was to invest the genre with literary merit" Similarly J. G. Ballard (born 1930) "became known in the 1960s as the most prominent of the 'New Wave' science fiction writers". A later major figure in science fiction was Iain M. Banks who created a fictional anarchist, socialist, and utopian society named "The Culture". The novels that feature in it include Excession (1996), and Inversions (1998). He also published mainstream novels, including the highly controversial The Wasp Factory in 1984. Nobel prize winner Doris Lessing also published a sequence of five science fiction novels the Canopus in Argos: Archives between 1979 and 1983.

Fantasy

Terry Pratchett

 

Terry Pratchett is best known for his Discworld series of comic fantasy novels, that begins with The Colour of Magic (1983), and includes Mort (1987), Hogfather (1996), and Night Watch (2002). Pratchett's other most notable work is the 1990 novel Good Omens.

Philip Pullman's fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials comprises Northern Lights (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997), and The Amber Spyglass (2000). It follows the coming-of-age of two children as they wander through a series of parallel universes against a backdrop of epic events.

Neil Gaiman is a writer of science fiction, fantasy short stories and novels, whose notable works include Stardust (1998), Coraline (2002), The Graveyard Book (2009), and The Sandman series.

Alan Moore's works include Watchmen, V for Vendetta set in a dystopian future UK, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and From Hell, speculating on the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper.

Douglas Adams wrote the five-volume science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and also wrote the humorous fantasy detective novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

Horror

Clive Barker horror novels include The Hellbound Heart (1986), and works in fantasy, Weaveworld (1987), Imajica and Abarat (2002). 

Stephen King and Dean Koontz are two other famous contemporary horror writers.

Age categories

Most genres of fiction may also be segmented by the age of the intended reader:

• Children's fiction
• Young adult fiction
• New adult fiction
• Adult fiction