McEwan, Amis and Okri joined by Cheetham and Proffitt in King's Birthday Honours

Authors Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and Ben Okri were among those receiving top honours in King Charles’ first Birthday Honours list, released on Friday (16th June). Also recognised from the book industry were publishers Anthony Cheetham and Stuart Proffitt, and BookTrust c.e.o. Diana Gerald.

Broadcaster Davina McCall, co-author of the British Book Awards Book of the Year Menopausing, was also honoured.

McEwan was named a Companion of Honour, a roster of those who have made outstanding contributions in their field, of whom only 65 recipients exist at any one time; he joins the ranks of Quentin Blake, Melvyn Bragg, J K Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Antonia Fraser, who have all also been given the honour in recent years. McEwan noted he was entering his 54th year of writing fiction, saying: "As all dedicated writers know, a literary life is not a career so much as a way of being. The task in hand, the novel one is trying to create, is always there, a constant and intimate companion."

The late Martin Amis was knighted in the Birthday Honours, with the knighthood given to him with a date of 18^th May, the day before his death, as the honour cannot be bestowed posthumously. Novelist Ben Okri also received a knighthood, for services to literature; he said that for him, the main value of his honour came in the "necessity to remind my fellow human beings that we are living on a cusp of a worldwide environmental crisis".

Publisher Anthony Cheetham, co-founder of Orion and founder of Head of Zeus, was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to literature; so too was historian and author William Dalrymple, for services to literature and the arts. Penguin publisher Stuart Proffitt received an OBE. 

Diana Gerald, chief executive of BookTrust, was awarded an MBE, saying: "This is not just an honour for me but a recognition of the world of all BookTrust’s staff, Bookstart co-ordinators and partners at a local level, and the librarians, childcare workers, health visitors, teachers, authors, illustrators, donors and publishers who support our work and who collectively make a difference to improving children’s lives through reading."

Also receiving MBEs were poet and playwright Inua Ellams, broadcaster and author Sally Magnusson (for services to people with dementia and their carers), and broadcaster Davina McCall, whose book Menopausing, co-authored with Dr Naomi Potter, was named Book of the Year at the Nibbies in May. Gail Pirkis and Hazel Wood, co-founders and editors of literary magazine Slightly Foxed, also received MBEs. Christine Myhill, libraries and heritage manager at Gateshead Libraries and chair of the Association of Senior Children’s & Education Librarians (ASCEL), was awarded an MBE too.

British Empire Medals went to Anthony Ellis, co-founder of King’s Lynn Literature Festivals, and to Karolynne Hart, cultural and arts programme manager for Gateshead Libraries.