IAN RANKIN"There is a pleasure in looking at the copyright page of one of our books. You will see in my case: 'Crime Fiction - Scottish - Edinburgh' or even 'Crime Fiction - British - Scottish - Edinburgh'. The way that I write is very different from the way that an English writer like Agatha Christie would have written."

LIZ LOCHHEAD"Any Scottish writer would be appalled by [being classified as English]. We write in English - but sometimes not. I can't imagine this could have happened without anyone being consulted. This goes absolutely against political and cultural movements in Scotland."

ALASDAIR GRAY"By God, if they are going to put Scottish authors into English literature, I insist they put the Americans there too."

JOSEPH O'CONNOR"I wouldn't like to be listed anywhere as 'an English writer'. Not for nationalist reasons but purely for accuracy. I'd feel the same about being listed as French or Italian.

"I might even like to be, but the fact is I'm not. It might be solved, if it needs to be, by changing the category name to 'Literature in English - Irish Writers'. But you still end up having to define who's in and who's not. And frankly, I'd rather be writing."

ANNE ENRIGHT"Proud as I am of being Irish, and of the Irish tradition, I spend more time trying to get out of boxes and categories than getting in to them.

I usually take the use of the word 'English', in such contexts, to refer to the language the book is written in. Perhaps librarians might make this clear with a 'Literature in English' category."