This paper investigates the notion of English teachers as writers, focusing specifically on the identity of the writer as they move from literary, philosophical and broader cultural spheres, and how this is understood within the context of secondary English education. The implications of what this identity, of these identities, mean for how teachers position themselves as writers in the classroom are discussed, as well as how this then affects understandings of the nature and value of subject English. The data for this paper are drawn from a research project that utilised a case study methodology of fifteen teacher-writers and data collection comprised a series of semi-structured interviews analysed through Pierre Bourdieu's sociology. The data reveal that English teachers' views of writing indicate a complex interaction with broader popular and cultural tropes of the writer.