‘Proud Brit’ Twiggy giggled about new Dame title during weeks of secret ‘purgatory’
TWIGGY JOKED that it has been “purgatory” keeping the news of being made a Dame a secret.
The model, born Lesley Hornby, has been awarded the title in the Queen’s New Year Honours list for her services to fashion, the arts and charity.
Brought up in Neasden, northwest London, her success story started when she was just 16 and it is often claimed she was the world’s first supermodel.
Dubbed “The Face of ’66” by the Daily Express, her four-year modelling career left its mark on the industry and her boyish, elfin look inspired a generation of girls.
The 69-year-old said: “It’s wonderful, but it makes me giggle.
“When we wake up every morning we turn to each other, my husband (Leigh Lawson) and I, and we just giggle. So it’s a very nice, warm feeling, and obviously I am very honoured.
“The hardest thing has been keeping it a secret, because we’ve known for about three-and-a-half weeks.”
She added: “I’m a very proud Brit, I feel I’m an ambassador for Britain, I always have, because I think it’s the best country in the world and I travel the world all the time and I’m known throughout the world and, you know, being British is one of my things.”
She turned to acting and musical theatre after modelling, and also went on to launch a music career.
It was Ken Russell’s 1971 film The Boy Friend which gained her a foothold in the acting world. The musical comedy, an adaptation of the theatre musical of the same name, won Twiggy two Golden Globe awards, for best newcomer and best actress in a musical/comedy respectively.
Meanwhile, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has been awarded a CBE for services to music.
The skilled percussionist featured on every album produced by the progressive rock group since he co-founded the band in 1965.
Together with his bandmates, including David Gilmour and Roger Waters, Mason helped forge a new and commercially popular experimentalism in rock music.
Mason, 74, began drumming in bands alongside fellow Regent Street Polytechnic student Waters in the early 1960s, before they teamed up with keyboard player Richard Wright and frontman Syd Barrett.
And Christopher Nolan, one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the 21st century and among the highest grossing directors of alltime, can add a CBE to his already illustrious CV.
His work on the Dark Knight trilogy as well as movies including The Prestige, Inception and Dunkirk brought him blockbuster success as well as an Oscar nomination.
The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson called for an end to the closure of libraries as she was awarded a CBE.
The 70-year-old, whose books are enjoyed by millions of children around the world, warned that younger generations are losing out.