Two works by Oxford authors have been shortlisted in the search for a book that says most about contemporary England and the English.

Environmental campaigner George Monbiot and novelist Tim Pears are head-to-head with Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth, and Nick Hornby, creator of Fever Pitch.

Readers across the country are being invited to vote for a book -- fiction, non-fiction or poetry -- that they feel describes most accurately contemporary England and the English.

In Captive State, George Monbiot argues that Britain's large multinational companies are now so powerful that they threaten democracy.

In A Land of Plenty by Tim Pears is set in a small town in post-war middle England as Britain claws its way from the grey austerity of the war years.

Another author in the list has an Oxfordshire connection -- Nineteen Eighty-four is by George Orwell, who is buried at Sutton Courtenay.

Voting cards containing the whole list can be picked up in libraries and most bookshops.

Readers can also vote at www.worldbookday.com

The closing date for entries is October 31 and the results will be announced on World Book Day 2003, March 6.