The co-founder of the Glastonbury festival, a bestselling novelist and an organ-playing TikTok sensation are among the recipients of New Year honours from the world of arts and culture.
Michael Eavis, 88, who first hosted the Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk festival at Worthy Farm in 1970, was recognised for services to music and charity.
In an interview with the official Glastonbury website, Sir Michael said his daughter Emily, with whom he runs the Glastonbury music festival, had brought him the official letter about his knighthood, adding: “I was really surprised to see it, actually. Why did they choose me I wonder?”
He added: “What can I say, really? I’ve done quite a lot of stuff in my life and I’ve always been fairly sure that I was doing the right thing.”
Leona Lewis, the singer-songwriter who won the third series of The X Factor in 2006, has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music and to charity.
Lewis grew up in Islington and, after being recognised for her vocal ability on the TV talent contest, became a seven-time Brit award nominee and was nominated three times for a Grammy award.
Also in music, Anna Lapwood, 28, a renowned organist, conductor and TikTok sensation who has challenged sexism in her industry, said it was a “huge privilege” to be on the honours list for an MBE.
Lapwood, the director of music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, said: “I just couldn’t quite believe it and it’s still sinking in, I guess.”
She was the first female organ scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, in its 560-year history and is now an associate artist of the Royal Albert Hall and also a conductor at Pembroke College.
She has introduced the organ to a new audience on TikTok, where she has more than 690,000 followers and amassed more than 21m likes.
Other showbiz names honoured include the radio DJ Tony Blackburn, who is made an OBE, fellow radio DJ Steve Wright, and Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood, who both are made MBEs.
The author Kate Mosse received a CBE, which she said was a recognition of the importance of the Women’s prize for fiction, of which she is a co-founder.
The novelist, 62, whose books have been translated into 38 languages and published in more than 40 countries, is best known for the Languedoc Trilogy – Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel – and The Joubert Family Chronicles – The Burning Chambers, The City Of Tears and The Ghost Ship.
She has been made a CBE for services to literature, to women and to charity.
The Women’s prize for fiction is now one of the biggest literary prizes in the world. Mosse said everybody involved in it “deserves all the accolades they could have”, as she applauded the “group effort”.
She added: “Quite often those things do get overlooked, not deliberately, but just there isn’t a system for them.
“So it does feel that although obviously this is for me, it’s very much an acknowledgment of the importance of the Women’s prize, and that it matters that women support other women.”
Elsewhere in literature, the bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith was knighted. The creator of The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series as well as the 44 Scotland Street novels has been given a knighthood for services to literature, academia and charity.
In film and television, the director and producer Sir Ridley Scott, whose works include Gladiator, Alien and Napoleon, is made a Knight Grand Cross, upgrading his previous knighthood, while Game Of Thrones actor Oliver Ford Davies has said he is “honoured” to be made an OBE. The performer, 84, best known for his Shakespearean stage work, found new fans as Maester Cressen in the HBO fantasy series and as Sio Bibble in the Star Wars prequel trilogy films released in 1999, 2002 and 2005. He has been recognised for services to drama.
Elsewhere in the arts, British artist Brian Clarke and Gregory Doran, the artistic director emeritus of the Royal Shakespeare Company, both received knighthoods. The artist, designer and creative director Samuel Ross was made an MBE, for services to fashion.
