You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Cooper, Mosse and Mackesy receive New Year Honours
Authors Jilly Cooper, Kate Mosse, Charlie Mackesy and Alexander McCall Smith are among those to have been recognised in King Charles III’s second New Year’s Honours list along with Libraries Connected president Carol Stump. Several librarians have also been celebrated as well as Christopher Jolly, publisher at Jolly Phonics and Creative Access co-founder Josie Dobrin.
More than 1,200 recipients have been awarded “for their exceptional achievements”, the Cabinet Office said, “with a focus on those who have given with generosity to others in need”.
Cooper has been made a dame, for services to literature and to charity, after receiving a CBE in 2018. She has sold more than 2.15 million books, amassing around £15m in the Nielsen BookScan era alone, with her bestseller 2007’s Wicked (Bantam Press) on 327,850 copies sold in paperback, according to Nielsen BookScan. She has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Gloucestershire and Anglia Ruskin, and won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print lifetime achievement award in 2019.
The 86-year-old said: "I am absolutely and incredibly bowled over. I cannot believe I am a DBE, which in my case also stands for ’delighted, bewildered and ecstatic’."
Mosse has been awarded a CBE for services to literature, to women and to charity and is described by the Cabinet Office as “a champion of diversity and female equality”. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, which she co-founded, is now one of the biggest literary prizes in the world and she recently helped launch the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.
An award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer, Mosse is known for her bestselling Languedoc and The Joubert Family Chronicles series (both published by Pan Macmillan). Her recent feminist non-fiction book, Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries (Mantle, October 2022), is now the basis for a one-woman theatre show.
Edinburgh-based academic and author McCall Smith has received a knighthood for services to literature, to academia and to charity, after previously having a CBE. His first non-academic title, The White Hippo (Hamish Hamilton), was published in 1980 while his bestselling The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series first hit the shelves almost 25 years ago.
Originally born in Zimbabwe in 1948, the writer moved to Scotland when he was 17 to study law, and now regularly publishes four to five new books a year, with a range of publishers in the UK.
Wild Swans author Dr Jung Chang has been given an CBE for services to literature and to history. The academic and author was raised among the Communist elite in China but then saw her parents denounced by the regime and sent to labour camps. Her 1991 début, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (HarperCollins), has sold across 40 languages but is still banned in China and her most recent book, Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2019.
London-based illustrator and author Mackesy won an OBE for services to art and literature. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) by Mackesy was 2020’s bestselling book and has sold across 50 languages altogether. The illustrated fable, which is based on the artist’s pictures from his daily Instagram account, has become a runaway success since publication in September 2019, spawning a vinyl version of the book in 2021 and an Oscar-winning short film.
Dobrin, co-founder and executive chair at arts social enterprise Creative Access, was given an OBE for services to the Creative Industries. She helped co-found the organisation in 2012 out of frustration at the lack of representation in the creative industries.
Meanwhile Felicity Dahl has been made a dame for services to philanthropy, to literature and to young people. She set up Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity in 1991, which provides support for seriously ill children, in memory of the late author Roald Dahl.
Professor Andrew Pettegree, author and historian, was given a CBE for services to literature, after previously having an FBA. He is an expert on the European Reformation, and the history of the book and media transformations and is based in Fife, Scotland.
His most recent title, The Book at War, explored how literature has been shaped by conflict and was published by Profile in October.
Tampon tax campaigner and author Laura Coryton, was given an MBE for services to charitable campaigning. Her Speak Up book was published by Red Shed in 2019.
An MBE also went to comedian and author Arabella Weir, for services to the arts and to young people. She has written a range of fiction and non-fiction titles and helped judge this year’s Comedy Women in Print Prize.
Christopher Jolly, m.d. and publisher at Jolly Phonics, received an OBE for services to education. He launched the company in 1987, initially publishing some boxed reading games. Jolly Phonics now teaches children to read and write using 42 letter sounds alongside actions, stories and songs. Jolly has honorary doctorates from the University of Uyo in Nigeria, the University of Bristol and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the IPG.
Additionally Ruth Miskin, children’s reading expert, known for Read Write Inc, was made a dame for services to education. Her company includes 150 trainers who support around 5,000 schools to teach Read Write Inc programmes, promoting literacy in children.
Among those in the library community, Libraries Connected president Stump was made an MBE for her services to public libraries. She began as a library assistant after leaving school with few qualifications and eventually became chief librarian for Kirklees Council. She took on the presidency of Libraries Connected, which promotes high quality public library service, in 2018.
Fellow library worker Richard Fowler, library lead for Harbury Community Library in Warwickshire, was given a British Empire Medal for services to libraries as was Christine Mellor, general manager for the Library Service at North Yorkshire Council. Alasdair Cunningham, Boston Spa renewed programme manager in Yorkshire, was given an MBE.
