Rushdie and Blake lead birthday honours
Author and illustrator made Companions of Honour as Her Majesty rewards a host of stars for their service
‘It’s a privilege to be included in such illustrious company, both past and present’
‘From a council estate in Peckham to being recognised by the Queen is akin to a fairy-tale’
SIR SALMAN RUSHDIE has told of his “great surprise and delight” as he was elevated to a Companion of Honour for his services to literature.
The Satanic Verses author was one of three additions to the Order of the Companions of Honour, which is limited to just 65 people at a time. He was joined by Sir Quentin Blake, the illustrator, and Dame Marina Warner, the historian and novelist.
They are named in the Queen’s birthday honours list among a host of famous names including actors Damian Lewis, Pauline Quirke and Helen Worth, broadcaster Clare Balding and fashion designer Stella Mccartney.
Sir Salman, 74, who spent nine years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called for his assassination in 1989, said it was “an extraordinary honour” to be made a member of the Order, which was founded in 1917 by George V.
He said: “It’s a privilege to be included in such illustrious company, both past and present.”
Other members of the Order include Sir David Attenborough, Sir Elton John, David Hockney, Sir John Major, George Osborne and Sir Paul Mccartney.
Appointments go to those who have made a long-standing contribution to arts, science, medicine or government.
Sir Salman worked as an advertising copywriter and came up with the famous cream cakes slogan “Naughty but nice” before he began his writing career in the 1970s. His second novel, Midnight’s Children, about the birth of India, won the Booker Prize in 1981.
Sir Quentin Blake said joining the order at the age of 89 means he will set about new projects with “renewed effort and enthusiasm”.
He said: “Of course it is an enormous privilege but it is also of special interest to me because it is not, unlike so many awards, just a medal that is pinned on you. On the one hand it acknowledges what you have done previously, but on the other looks forward to what you are going to do in the future.”
Sir Quentin is best known for his lengthy collaboration with the author Roald Dahl, beginning with his illustrations on the 1978 story The Enormous Crocodile. He went on to illustrate Dahl classics including Matilda, The BFG, and The Twits and has written and illustrated more than 500 books. Ian Rankin, the award-winning author of the Inspector Rebus novels, is knighted for services to literature and charity.
Lewis, 51, best known for his role in the television series Homeland, receives a CBE for services to drama and charity a year after he lost his wife, Helen Mccrory, to cancer.
Sports presenter Balding, 51, said it was “overwhelming to be recognised for doing things I enjoy so much” as she was made a CBE.
Mccartney, 50, who launched her own fashion label in 2001, also receives a CBE, while John Torode and Gregg Wallace, the Masterchef hosts, receive MBES for services to food and charity.
Wallace said: “From a council estate in Peckham to being recognised by the Queen is, for me, something akin to a fairy-tale.
“I am incredibly, incredibly proud.” Other MBE recipients include Birds of a Feather star Pauline Quirke, Coronation Street stalwart Helen Worth, who has played Gail Platt in the long-running ITV soap since 1974, and actor and rapper Andrew Onwubolu, better known as Rapman.
Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh pop singer who became a worldwide star in the 1980s with a string of hits including Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero, receives an MBE for services to music.
Born Gaynor Hopkins in Neath, the 70-year-old has had a career spanning five decades since first being spotted by a talent scout in 1974 when she was performing in pubs and clubs in South Wales.
Tyler has sold more than 20million records worldwide and represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013.