The best uniquely British dystopian novels

Diana Wynne Jones was the author who made me want to be a writer, and I can't recommend her highly enough. Witch Week might seem an unconventional choice for a list about dystopian fiction—it’s a children’s fantasy novel set in a boarding school—but if you’re expecting early Harry Potter, you’ll be chillingly surprised. Set in an alternate 80s Britain where suspected witches are still burnt at the stake, this story is dystopic to its bones. What I love about it is how unflinchingly dark it gets. It doesn’t shy away from the raw, existential terror of living in a society that hates you for how you were born: there’s one scene in particular that gives me a shiver whenever I think about it.

This is the novel that first sparked my appetite for dystopian fiction. No list of British dystopias would be complete without it, and it’s a classic for very good reason. Every time I read it, I’m amazed by the range of Orwell’s prose: the book flits from the tenderness of an emerging love affair, to deft explanations of political theory, to exquisitely claustrophobic evocations of a life lived under constant surveillance. Britain under the rule of ‘The Party’ is the most repressive and authoritarian society I’ve ever encountered in fiction. Fair warning: this is a bleak, bleak read, so wait until you’re feeling brave before you start!

Another classic, and the only graphic novel on my list. I read V for Vendetta in parallel with 1984, and it’s an experience I’d really recommend. There are so many interesting things to compare about the two that I found reading them together enhanced my appreciation of both. The fascistic societies they depict are superficially similar, but at their core, I think the two novels draw very different conclusions about the nature of dystopias, and the power individual people have to challenge them. I’d suggest reading them with a friend and then cheering yourselves up afterward by picking them apart.

This is a lighter dystopia, in many ways—call it a unicorn chaser for 1984 and V for Vendetta, if you will! It’s a YA novel, and I found it a quick, fun, pacy read—as are its two sequels. You can often pick up all three in a single volume, which is how I read them. I don’t want to say too much about the first book, because so much of the fun of its opening chapters lies in figuring out what on earth is going on. You’re dropped into the peaceful English village of Wherton—a rural idyll on the surface, but there’s something not quite right about it. Maybe it has something to do with the strange headwear everyone’s sporting…

This underappreciated masterpiece is my favourite novel on the list, and the one I would make everyone read if I could. Fforde’s trademark is his "quirky British cosiness" (The Guardian) but in this book, that cosiness is twisted into something equal parts chilling and surreal. The result is the most compelling dystopia I’ve ever read. It’s about a hierarchical society organised according to colour perception, with the lowly Greys (who see in black and white) at the bottom and the illustrious Purples (who can see shades of red and blue) at the top. If that sounds weird to you, you’re absolutely right—it is. It’s also hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, fathoms deep and breathtakingly dark, with a series of brilliant twists and a killer sting in the tail.