Canon and great books · United Kingdom

The BBC Big Read: the nation's best-loved novels 2003

99 books set by BBC, each with its first edition, the points that identify it and what it is worth where sales are recorded.

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The BBC Big Read: the nation's best-loved novels for 2003: 99 books. We have identified the first edition of 91 of them and hold recorded values for 7. A school or study copy of any of these is a reprint worth a few pounds; the first printing of the first edition is the copy collectors pay for. The list comes from the official source, read on 22 October 2026.

In 2003 the BBC asked the country to vote for its best-loved novel, and more than 700,000 people did. The Lord of the Rings won, ahead of Pride and Prejudice, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with two children's books (Winnie-the-Pooh and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and a Harry Potter in the top ten. It is not a school list, but it is the list most British readers have measured their shelves against since, and it has become a reading challenge in its own right.

The top ten is also a fair map of the British first-edition market. The Lord of the Rings (Allen and Unwin, 1954 to 1955, three volumes in jackets) and Winnie-the-Pooh (Methuen, 1926) are five-figure sets in fine condition; Nineteen Eighty-Four (Secker and Warburg, 1949) and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Geoffrey Bles, 1950) are the four-figure firsts most often found at home; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Bloomsbury, 2000) was printed in such numbers that a first is worth little unless it carries one of the known errors or a signature. Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Jane Eyre (1847) are the rare-book end.

Each row links to the book's page, where the first edition is identified against two sources, its points are listed, and a value band appears once we hold recorded sales of that printing.

  1. 1954 The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien1 First edition not yet identified
  2. 1813 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen2 First edition: T. Egerton 1813
  3. 1995 His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman3 First edition not yet identified
  4. 1979 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams4 First edition: Pan 1979
  5. 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling5 First edition: Bloomsbury 2000 points listed
  6. 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee6 First edition: Lippincott 1960 points listed
  7. 1926 Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne7 First edition: Methuen 1926 points listed
  8. 1949 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell8 First edition: Secker & Warburg 1949 points listed £405 to £4,000
  9. 1950 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis9 First edition: Geoffrey Bles 1950 points listed £1,375 to £2,100
  10. 1847 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë10 First edition: Smith, Elder 1847
  11. 1961 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller11 First edition: Simon & Schuster 1961 points listed
  12. 1847 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë12 First edition: Thomas Cautley Newby 1847
  13. 1993 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks13 First edition: Hutchinson 1993
  14. 1938 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier14 First edition: Gollancz 1938
  15. 1951 The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger15 First edition: Little, Brown 1951 points listed
  16. 1908 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame16 First edition: Methuen 1908 £2,300 to £3,300
  17. 1861 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens17 First edition: Chapman and Hall 1861
  18. 1868 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott18 First edition not yet identified
  19. 1994 Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières19 First edition: Secker & Warburg 1994 points listed
  20. 1869 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy20 First UK edition: Dent 1900
  21. 1936 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell21 First edition: Macmillan 1936 points listed
  22. 1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling22 First edition: Bloomsbury 1997 points listed
  23. 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling23 First edition: Bloomsbury 1998 points listed
  24. 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling24 First edition: Bloomsbury 1999 points listed £385 to £650
  25. 1937 The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien25 First edition: George Allen & Unwin 1937 points listed £2,900 to £17,000
  26. 1891 Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy26 First edition: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine 1891 points listed
  27. 1871 Middlemarch by George Eliot27 First edition: Blackwood 1871
  28. 1989 A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving28 First UK edition: Bloomsbury Publishing 1989
  29. 1939 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck29 First edition: Viking 1939 points listed
  30. 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll30 First edition: Macmillan 1865 points listed
  31. 1991 The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson31 First edition: Doubleday 1991
  32. 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez32 First UK edition: Jonathan Cape 1970
  33. 1989 The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett33 First edition: Pan Macmillan 1989
  34. 1849 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens34 First edition: Bradbury & Evans 1849
  35. 1964 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl35 First edition: Alfred A. Knopf 1964 points listed £605 to £975
  36. 1883 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson36 First edition: Cassell 1883 points listed
  37. 1950 A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute37 First edition: Heinemann 1950
  38. 1817 Persuasion by Jane Austen38 First edition: John Murray 1818
  39. 1965 Dune by Frank Herbert39 First edition: Chilton Book Co 1965 points listed
  40. 1815 Emma by Jane Austen40 First edition not yet identified
  41. 1908 Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery41 First edition: The Page Company 1908
  42. 1972 Watership Down by Richard Adams42 First edition: Rex Collings 1972 points listed
  43. 1925 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald43 First edition: Scribner 1925 points listed
  44. 1844 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas44 First edition not yet identified
  45. 1945 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh45 First edition: Little, Brown 1945
  46. 1945 Animal Farm by George Orwell46 First edition: Secker & Warburg 1945 points listed
  47. 1843 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens47 First edition: Chapman and Hall 1843 points listed £4,650 to £6,750
  48. 1874 Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy48 First edition: Smith, Elder 1874
  49. 1987 The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher50 First edition: Magna Large Print Books 1987
  50. 1911 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett51 First edition: F.A. Stokes 1911
  51. 1937 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck52 First edition: Covici-Friede 1937 points listed
  52. 1978 The Stand by Stephen King53 First edition: Doubleday 1978 points listed
  53. 1878 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy54 First edition not yet identified
  54. 1993 A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth55 First edition: Phoenix House 1993 points listed
  55. 1982 The BFG by Roald Dahl56 First edition: Jonathan Cape 1982 points listed
  56. 1930 Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome57 First edition: Jonathan Cape 1930
  57. 1877 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell58 First edition: Jarrold 1877
  58. 2001 Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer59 First edition: Viking 2001
  59. 1866 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky60 First UK edition: Dent 1911
  60. 2001 Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman61 First edition not yet identified
  61. 1997 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden62 First UK edition: Chatto & Windus 1997
  62. 1859 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens63 First edition: Chapman and Hall 1859 points listed
  63. 1977 The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough64 First UK edition: Macdonald 1977
  64. 1987 Mort by Terry Pratchett65 First edition: Victor Gollancz in association with Colin Smythe 1987 points listed
  65. 1943 The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton66 First edition: George Newnes 1943
  66. 1965 The Magus by John Fowles67 First edition: Little, Brown 1965
  67. 1990 Good Omens by Neil Gaiman68 First edition: Gollancz 1990 points listed
  68. 1989 Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett69 First edition: Gollancz 1989 points listed
  69. 1954 Lord of the Flies by William Golding70 First edition: Faber & Faber 1954 points listed
  70. 1985 Perfume by Patrick Süskind71 First edition not yet identified
  71. 2002 Night Watch by Terry Pratchett73 First edition: HarperCollins 2002
  72. 1988 Matilda by Roald Dahl74 First edition: Jonathan Cape 1988 points listed
  73. 1996 Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding75 First edition: Picador 1996
  74. 1992 The Secret History by Donna Tartt76 First UK edition: Viking 1992
  75. 1860 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins77 First edition: S. Low, Son & Co 1860 points listed
  76. 1922 Ulysses by James Joyce78 First edition: Shakespeare and Company 1922 points listed
  77. 1852 Bleak House by Charles Dickens79 First edition: Bradbury and Evans 1853 points listed
  78. 1995 Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson80 First edition: Doubleday 1995
  79. 1980 The Twits by Roald Dahl81 First edition: Jonathan Cape 1980 points listed
  80. 1948 I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith82 First edition: Little, Brown 1948
  81. 1998 Holes by Louis Sachar83 First edition: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1998
  82. 1950 Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake84 First edition: Eyre & Spottiswoode 1950
  83. 1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy85 First UK edition: Flamingo 1997
  84. 2001 Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson86 First edition: Delacorte Press 2001
  85. 1932 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley87 First edition: Chatto & Windus 1932 points listed
  86. 1932 Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons88 First edition: Longmans, Green 1932
  87. 1982 Magician by Raymond E. Feist89 First edition: Doubleday 1982
  88. 1957 On The Road by Jack Kerouac90 First edition: Viking 1957 points listed
  89. 1969 The Godfather by Mario Puzo91 First edition: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1969
  90. 1980 The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel92 First UK edition: Hodder & Stoughton 1980
  91. 1983 The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett93 First edition: Colin Smythe 1983 points listed
  92. 1988 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho94 First UK edition: Harper Collins 1988
  93. 1954 Katherine by Anya Seton95 First edition: Houghton Mifflin 1954
  94. 1985 Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez97 First UK edition: Penguin Books 1988
  95. 1997 Girls in Love by Jacqueline Wilson98 First UK edition: Random House 2008
  96. 2000 The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot99 First edition: Harper Avon 2000
  97. 1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie100 First edition: Jonathan Cape 1981
  98. 1981 Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian49 First edition: Puffin 1981
  99. 1914 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell72 First edition: G. Richards 1914
Changes

What changed

The BBC ran the Big Read in 2003; more than 700,000 votes chose The Lord of the Rings. The top hundred is listed here, numbered by rank, apart from Kane and Abel (96), which is not yet in our catalogue.

More lists

Other canon and great books lists

Questions collectors ask

Frequently asked questions

What books are on the The BBC Big Read: the nation's best-loved novels for 2003?

99 books: The Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, His Dark Materials, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, To Kill a Mockingbird, Winnie-the-Pooh, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Jane Eyre, Catch-22, Wuthering Heights and more. The full list on this page comes from the official source, dated.

Which The BBC Big Read: the nation's best-loved novels books are valuable as first editions?

By recorded sales, The Hobbit (George Allen & Unwin 1937, £2,900 to £17,000); A Christmas Carol (Chapman and Hall 1843, £4,650 to £6,750); Nineteen Eighty-Four (Secker & Warburg 1949, £405 to £4,000). Values depend on condition and the dust jacket.

Is my school copy worth anything?

No: school and study editions are reprints made in huge numbers and sell for a few pounds. The copy that carries value is the first printing of the first edition, which each row links to with its points.

What changed on the The BBC Big Read: the nation's best-loved novels?

The BBC ran the Big Read in 2003; more than 700,000 votes chose The Lord of the Rings. The top hundred is listed here, numbered by rank, apart from Kane and Abel (96), which is not yet in our catalogue.

Sources

Where these facts come from

The list is the official one; the first editions, points and values come from our catalogue and are listed only where two sources agree. Checked 22 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.

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