Honours

The London Gazette have published the New Years Honours List.

According to the announcement from the Cabinet Office, the list includes 972 people, including 599 MBEs and 235 OBEs. There are 378 women - 6 Dames, 32 CBEs and 4 CBs - on the list.

Most of the names don't mean anything to me - they're Brits, I'm a Yank - but there are a few I recognise, such as Sir Ian Murray McKellen CBE, who was made a CH "for services to Drama and to Equality," and Ms Kylie Ann Minogue, who received an OBE "for services to Music." Harry Potter fans may be amused to learn of the CBE awarded to Air Cdre John David Tonks, RAF. (I was certainly surprised to find out that Tonks really is a surname!)

The award I was happy to see, however, was:

O.B.E.
To be Ordinary Officers of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order [of the British Empire]:
Eric Gordon Hill, Author and Illustrator of Spot. For services to children's literacy.

Mr Hill has been writing the Spot books since 1980. We had a couple of them when our 12yo was a toddler, and she enjoyed them. It's good to see awards such as this being given for this reason.