I am continually astonished how many people cling to an early-primary-school definition of “vowel” (namely, specifically and only the letters A, E, I, O, U) when their experience with language since those early days must surely have drawn some exceptions to their notice. In particular, Y is sometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant in English, and is sometimes called a semivowel because of this. In the word YET it is a consonant, but in the word SHY it is a vowel. In the name of the author we are seeking, there is a Y, and it is most definitely a vowel there. There are a handful of other letters which can also serve as vowels in English, but these are very much exceptions while the Y-as-vowel words are plentiful and well known.
I have sometimes mused that since Countdown includes Y as a consonant perhaps words that use it as a vowel should be disallowed in that game :-)