37 1951 British novels

Air Bridge is a 1951 thriller novel by the British writer Hammond Innes.

Appointment with Venus is a novel by Jerrard Tickell published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1951, leading to a British film adaptation the same year and a Danish film adaptation in 1962. The story is based on a real incident of the evacuation of Alderney cattle from the Channel Island during World War II.

The Armourer's House is a children's historical novel by Rosemary Sutcliff and first published in 1951.

Beat the Devil is a 1951 thriller written by Claud Cockburn under the pseudonym James Helvick. Cockburn had to use the pseudonym as, though he had left the British Communist Party in 1947, he was still considered a "Red" during the early years of the Cold War, which was rife with anti-communist sentiment. Beat the Devil was Cockburn's first novel, and the first work of fiction that the long-time political journalist had written since the 1920s. The title was later used by Cockburn's son Alexander for his regular column in The Nation.

The Blessing is a comic satirical novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1951.

But a Short Time to Live is a 1951 crime thriller novel by the British writer James Hadley Chase. It was originally published under the pen name of Raymond Marshall. In the United States it was known by the alternative title The Pick-up.

Conscience of the King (1951) is an historical novel by British author Alfred Duggan based on the life of Cerdic Elesing, founder of the Kingdom of Wessex. It begins 40 years after the events covered in The Little Emperors, set during the last years of Roman Britain from 406-410 CE. His later novel The King of Athelney (1962) concerns one of Cerdic's most famous descendants, Alfred the Great.

The Cruel Sea is a 1951 novel by Nicholas Monsarrat. It follows the lives of a group of Royal Navy sailors fighting the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. It contains seven chapters, each describing a year during the war.

The Daughter of Time is a 1951 detective novel by Josephine Tey, concerning a modern police officer's investigation into the alleged crimes of King Richard III of England. It was the last book Tey published in her lifetime, shortly before her death. In 1990 it was voted number one in The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list compiled by the British Crime Writers' Association. In 1995 it was voted number four in The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time list compiled by the Mystery Writers of America.

The Day of the Triffids is a 1951 post-apocalyptic novel by the English science fiction author John Wyndham. After most people in the world are blinded by an apparent meteor shower, an aggressive species of plant starts killing people. Although Wyndham had already published other novels using other pen name combinations drawn from his real name, this was the first novel published as "John Wyndham".

Death Has Deep Roots is the fifth novel by the British mystery writer Michael Gilbert. It was published in England by Hodder and Stoughton in 1951 and in the United States by Harper & Brothers in 1952. It is basically a classical courtroom trial story but with almost equally important thriller elements juxtaposed with the courtroom scenes. Although Inspector Hazlerigg, who had appeared in all of Gilbert's earlier novels as a mostly leading character, does play a role in this story, it is only in two brief appearances, once towards the beginning of the book and once again near the end. Two of the three main characters in this book are from previous novels, Major Angus McMann and Noel Anthony Pontarlier ("Nap") Rumbold. The other leading character, the trial barrister Hargest Macrae, also appears in some of Gilbert's early short stories.

The End of the Affair (1951) is a novel by British author Graham Greene, as well as the title of two feature films that were adapted from the novel.

An English Murder is a crime novel by Cyril Hare. Published in 1951, it combines traits of classical Golden Age murder mystery – a group of guests in a snowed in country house – with the realities of post-war Britain.

Five on a Hike Together is the tenth novel in the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. It was first published in 1951.

A Game of Hide and Seek is a 1951 novel by Elizabeth Taylor.

The Gauntlet is a children's historical novel, written by Ronald Welch, and published in 1951. It is a time slip story set both in 1951 and in 1326, mainly in Carreg Cennen Castle, but also in Kidwelly Castle and Valle Crucis Abbey.

A Ghost in Monte Carlo is a 1951 novel by Barbara Cartland.

The Little Emperors is a 1951 historical novel by the English author Alfred Duggan. The novel follows the speculative exploits of Caius Felix in the Roman-British province of Britannia Prima.

The Lonely Voyage is an adventure novel by English author John Harris. It is his first novel.

The Masters is the fifth novel in C. P. Snow's series Strangers and Brothers. It involves the election of a new Master at narrator Lewis Eliot's unnamed Cambridge College, which resembles Christ's College where Snow was a fellow. The 1951 novel's dedication is 'In memory of G. H. Hardy', the Cambridge mathematician. It was the first of the Strangers and Brothers series to be published in the United States.

My Cousin Rachel is a novel by British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1951. Like the earlier Rebecca, it is a mystery-romance, set primarily on a large estate in Cornwall.

The Mystery of the Vanished Prince, published 1951, is the ninth novel in the Five Find-Outers series written by Enid Blyton.

Nightrunners of Bengal is the title of the first novel by John Masters. It is a work of historical fiction set against the background of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It was published in 1951 in the United Kingdom by Michael Joseph, London, and in the United States by the Viking Press, New York.

The Old Reliable is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 18 April 1951 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 11 October 1951 by Doubleday & Co, New York. The novel was serialised in Collier's magazine from 24 June to 22 July 1950, under the title Phipps to the Rescue.

Opening Night is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the sixteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1951. It was published in the United States as Night at the Vulcan.

Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages is a 1951 historical romance by John Cowper Powys. Set in the Dark Ages during a week of autumn 499 AD, this novel is, in part, a bildungsroman, with the adventures of the eponymous protagonist Porius, heir to the throne of Edeyrnion, in North Wales, at its centre. The novel draws from both Arthurian legend and Welsh history and mythology, with Myrddin (Merlin) as another major character. The invasion of Wales by the Saxons and the rise of the new religion of Christianity are central themes. Due to the demands of publishers and a paper shortage in Britain, Powys was forced to excise more than 500 pages from the 1951 version. It wasn't until 2007 that the full novel, as Powys intended his magnum opus to be, was published both in Britain and America.

Prince Caspian is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1951. It was the second published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956), and Lewis had finished writing it in 1949, before the first book was out. It is volume four in recent editions of the series, sequenced according to the internal chronology of the books. Like the others, it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes and her work has been retained in many later editions.

A Question of Upbringing is the opening novel in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, a twelve-volume cycle spanning much of the 20th century.

The Quiet Gentleman is a Regency novel by Georgette Heyer. Set in the spring of 1816, after the Battle of Waterloo, it is the story of the return home from the wars of the Seventh Earl of St Erth to claim his inheritance.

Round the Bend is a 1951 novel by Nevil Shute. It tells the story of Constantine "Connie" Shaklin, an aircraft engineer who founds a new religion transcending existing religions based on the merit of good work. It deals with racism, including the White Australia policy, and also with the importance of private enterprise. It was one of the first novels Shute wrote after emigrating from Britain to Australia in 1950.

The Sands of Mars is a science fiction novel by English writer Arthur C. Clarke. While he was already popular as a short story writer and as a magazine contributor, The Sands of Mars was also a prelude to Clarke's becoming one of the world's foremost writers of science fiction novels. The story was published in 1951, before humans had achieved space flight. It is set principally on the planet Mars, which has been settled by humans and is used essentially as a research establishment. The story setting is that Mars has been surveyed but not fully explored on the ground. The Sands of Mars was Clarke's first published novel.

The Houses in Between is a 1951 novel by the British writer Howard Spring. It follows the life of one character Sarah Rainborough from 1851 to 1948. At the beginning of the story she is taken by her family to see the The Crystal Palace in London as part of the Great Exhibition. The title refers to a traditional music hall song that you would be able to see to Crystal Palace if it weren't for the houses in between.

They Came to Baghdad is an adventure novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 5 March 1951 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2.50.

The Thin Line, later re-issued as Murder, My Love, is a 1951 crime novel by the British-Lebanese author Edward Atiyah. It was filmed twice, first as The Stranger Within a Woman by Naruse Mikio, 1966, and then by Claude Chabrol, as Just Before Nightfall, 1971.

A Way Through the Wood is a 1951 novel by the British writer Nigel Balchin. A car accident exposes a family's deep-buried secret.

White Boots is a children's novel by Noel Streatfeild. It was first published by Collins publishers in 1951. The book was published under the title Skating Shoes in the US, also in 1951. White Boots tells the story of a poor girl and a rich girl who meet as a result of ice skating and is the tale of their unlikely friendship.

The Wool-Pack is a children's historical novel written and illustrated by Cynthia Harnett, published by Methuen in 1951. It was the first published of four children's novels that Harnett set in 15th-century England. She won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising it as the year's best children's book by a British subject.