There were many famous writers in England. English literature contains a lot of periods. Let's look at their most prominent representatives.The first period is called the Old English. It was the time of the first written literature of England. We have the information about some poets of that period. The most famous of them was Caedmon. He was the Anglo-Saxon monk and author of "Hymn".The next period of English literature is Middle English. The well-known writer of that time was Geoffrey Chaucer. People know he wrote “The Canterbury Tales”. His works have a great popularity even today.It was the period of Renaissance in the 16 century. Renowned English poets and writers Edmund Spencer, Sir Philip Sidney, Francis Bacon lived and worked at that time. John Milton wrote his poem “Paradise Lost” and described the biblical story about heaven and hell. But the most brilliant representative of Renaissance in England was William Shakespeare.The greatest British poet and playwright was born in 1564. His hometown is Stratford-upon-Avon. William began to write his sonnets and plays in London in the age of 22. Later Shakespeare became one of the co-owners of the theatre Globe. He lived in London, but sometimes poet visited his family in Stratford. The playwright died at 52. William was buried in the Stratford church. There is also a monument to Shakespeare in the Westminster Abbey. His best-known plays are: “Othello”, “Hamlet”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Much Ado about Nothing”, “King Lear”.It was the period of Restoration in the 17th century. It was the time of new forms in literature. S. Pepys wrote the first memoirs “Dairy”. There were also changes in the poetry. They were reflected in John Dryden's comedy "Marriage a la Mode."There were several literary movements in 18th century. The representatives of literary elite were J. Swift, D. Defoe, H. Fielding. The main themes of the poems of S. Coleridge, W. Blake, W. Wordsworth were the forces of nature. Sir Walter Scott was the pioneer of the historical novel.The most famous writers of the Victorian period were C. Dickens, W. Thackeray, G. Elliot and T. Hardy.There was the First World War, and it was the beginning of the modern period in English literature. The best-known representatives of this period were T. Eliot and V. Woolf. Such writers as G. Greene, W. Golding, I. Murdoch worked at the end of the 20th century.