Every story needs a great baddie, but which is the most infamous across book fiction?

Kindle Storyteller Award, a £20,000 literary prize celebrating the UK’s best self-published story, has polled 2000 British novel lovers to find out.

And it turned out that crazed serial killer Hannibal Lecter came out on Top with 33 per cent of the vote.

The cannibalistic monster was Thomas Harris's brainchild in The Silence of the Lambs, a character famously portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the film adaptation.

Just behind on 26 per cent was Count Dracula from Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror classic followed by Captain Hook (20 per cent) from James Barrie’s Peter Pan.

Meanwhile, Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth was the top woman, coming in fourth with 18 per cent, and the only Bond villain to make the ranking was Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger.

1. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris – 33%
2. Count Dracula from Dracula by Bram Stoker – 26%
3. Captain Hook from Peter Pan by James Barrie – 20%
4. Lady Macbeth from Macbeth by William Shakespeare – 18%
5. Sauron from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien – 17%
6. Pennywise from IT by Stephen King – 16%
7. Voldemort from Harry Potter by JK Rowling – 16%
8. Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith – 16%
9. Miss Trunchbull from Matilda by Roald Dahl – 15%
10. The Joker from The Killing Joke by Alan Moore – 14%
11. Goldfinger from Goldfinger by Ian Fleming – 13%
12. Fagin from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens – 13%
13. The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum – 12%
14. Bill Sikes from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens – 12%
15. Dr Frankenstein from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – 12%

16. The Queen of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – 12%
17. The White Witch (Jadis) from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis – 12%
18. Annie Wilkes from Misery by Stephen King – 11%
19. Patrick Bateman from American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis – 11%
20. The Shark from Jaws by Peter Benchley – 10%
21. Mr. Hyde from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – 10%
22. Big Brother from 1984 by George Orwell – 9%
23. Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – 9%
24. Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey – 8%
25. Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling – 8%
26. Napoleon from Animal Farm by George Orwell – 7%
27. Professor Moriarty from The Final Problem by Arthur Conan Doyle – 7%
28. Begbie from Trainspotting by Irving Welsh – 7%
29. Captain Ahab from Moby-Dick by Herman Melville – 6%
30. Richard III from Richard III by William Shakespeare – 6%

This year’s Kindle Storyteller Award launches on Thursday, May 1, and is accepting submissions until August 31, 2025. All titles must be enrolled in Kindle Direct Publishing Select while they are in the competition. For further information, click here.