A plug and a puzzle

 

I know I said I was cutting back on my posts, and I am but I wanted to let those of you who might be considering attending the Oxford Literary Festival that the writer Guy Fraser-Sampson is giving a talk on April 1^st about his novel Major Benjy which as you may recall I reviewed back in September. If you don't remember then you can read the review here.

The novel is set in the world of Mapp and Lucia created by author E. F. Benson. If you're not familiar with them, think of a female Jeeves and Wooster and you won't be too far off the mark. Anyway, I was thoroughly entertained by the book and if he's as good a speaker as he is a writer then I expect you will be too.

Here’s where you can get tickets.

That was the plug. Now for the puzzle.

I have had a long time fascination with word searches, not so much doing them but creating them – much more fun – and so I thought I'd treat you to one with a literary bent. There's no prize as such. It's just a bit of fun.

There are 28 twentieth century authors in the grid (well, 28 writers who were alive in the twentieth century) and, if you're really smart you can tell me the connection between them all. Actually if you work out the connection early on it'll help you finish off the puzzle because there are a couple of hard ones in there.

Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure I used a software package to create this. I have one half-done but I ran out of time so it'll have to wait for another day. If no one can find all twenty eight and the connection I’ll post the answer at the weekend.