Footballer Ian Wright, fashion editor Dame Anna Wintour and author Ian McEwan are among the famous faces recognised in the King’s first Birthday Honours list. The highest awards went to Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna and Booker Prize-winning novelist McEwan, who were made Companions of Honour alongside Professor Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford.
In the showbiz world, Line Of Duty actress Vicky McClure, television presenter Davina McCall and veteran broadcaster Ken Bruce were made MBEs. Meanwhile, former England and Arsenal footballer-turned-pundit Wright was made an OBE, while late author Sir Martin Amis was knighted a day before he died last month aged 73.
McEwan told the PA news agency: “News of the honour, in a letter from the Cabinet Office, was a complete surprise and, naturally, I was delighted. I guess it amounts to a really good review. I’m now entering my 54th year of writing fiction. As all dedicated writers know, a literary life is not a career so much as a way of being.
