British author Salman Rushdie (now, of course, Sir Salman Rushdie) who wrote The Satanic Verses has been knighted by the Queen in the Birthday Honours.
Also knighted is former England cricket star Ian Botham, who helped England win the Ashes in amazing style in 1981.
Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs, who has been at the club since 1993 and has won a record 9 Premiership titles, has been awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).
Australian Barry Humphries, who dresses as a woman to play Dame Edna Everidge (who was given a title before Humphries!), was given a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).
But both Giggs and Humphries cannot call themselves "Sir" as only the two highest-ranking medals allow you to become "Sir", whereas the CBE ranks 3rd and the OBE ranks 4th.
Former Soviet spy, defector and double agent Oleg Gordievsky is appointed a CMG (Companion of the Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George) for "services to the security of the United Kingdom".
************************************************
A new chapter opens in the life of Sir Salman
By Caroline Davies
16/06/2007
The Telegraph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire
Salman Rushdie, the writer who lived in hiding for years under threat of death from a fatwa, today becomes Sir Salman in a Queen's Birthday Honours List which also sees former cricketer Ian Botham given the same award.
Sir Salman Rushdie: "Thrilled and humbled'
The two knights are among scores of leading figures from the stage, screen, literature, academia and the sporting world who join hundreds of "ordinary people" honoured.
Perhaps the most remarkable inclusion is former Soviet spy, defector and double agent Oleg Gordievsky who is appointed a CMG (Companion of the Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George) for "services to the security of the United Kingdom".
Mr Gordievsky's honour - the same as held by James Bond - is announced in the Diplomatic List and comes as tensions between Russian and Britain have increased following the murder of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.
Sir Salman, 59, whose life was irrevocably changed in 1989 with the issuing of a fatwa by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini over his book The Satanic Verses, said: "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way."
Now spending much of his time in the United States, the Booker prize-winner was forced into hiding and guarded by Special Branch for nine years until Teheran withdrew support for the death sentence, a decision which gradually allowed him to return to public life.
Sir Ian too was "delighted" with his knighthood, especially as his flat-mate from his Somerset days, the West Indies cricket great Sir Viv Richards, had already got one.
"How many people would have thought that Viv and I would be here when we started out in his flat as teenagers and used to go across the road to Roy Marshall's pub?" he said. The 51-year-old was honoured for his sporting achievements as well as for the millions he has raised through fund-raising walks for Leukaemia Research - including one across the Alps with elephants.
"My wife Kath ran most of the walks, and this will be very much a family celebration," said Sir Ian.
Barry Humphries has been awarded a CBE: 'At last I can address
Sir Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage on an improved footing'
For Barry Humphries, also known as Dame Edna Everage, the award of a CBE will mean another trip to Buckingham Palace.
The Australian entertainer, who also introduced the nation to "cultural attache" Sir Les Patterson, provided a memorable moment when he appeared at the Golden Jubilee pop concert and introduced the Queen with the words: "The jubilee girl is here, possums!"
Humphries, 63, who learned of his CBE after coming off stage in Brisbane, said: "I am deeply honoured.
At last I can address Sir Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage on an improved footing."
To show there are no hard feelings from Downing Street, an award goes to Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights group Liberty who has been one of the most persistent thorns in the Government side.
The barrister, 38, who, as a former Home Office lawyer knows exactly how to hit the government, received the CBE. "I'm not the most predictable choice," she said.
"No one was more surprised than me, particularly when it must have been recommended by this Government that I have fought so hard."
************************
Showbusiness and sport
16/06/2007
Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs OBE
As the voice of cheese-loving inventor Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit films, Peter Sallis is known to a generation of children. But it is his extraordinarily long and successful career that today earns the 87-year-old actor his OBE.
"I'm flattered. I don't even dream about these things, which is probably just as well," said Sallis, who became known to millions during his 30 years as hapless Norman Clegg in the BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine.
An OBE also goes to actress Sylvia Syms, 73, who last year played the Queen Mother in the film The Queen. Comedy actor Bill Pertwee, 80, Hodges the airwarden of Dad's Army fame, receives an MBE, as does Glen Murphy, from The Bill and Dr Who - both for services to charity. Gravelly-voiced rock singer Joe Cocker gets an OBE.
There are OBEs too for sitcom writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Ryan Giggs, the Wales and Manchester United footballer, ends his international career on a high with an OBE. He has won more English championship medals than any other player.
Teddy Sheringham, the former England striker, who has played for Millwall, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth and who was still playing in the Premiership for West Ham last season in his 40s, receives an MBE.
Jane Couch, the female boxer known as The Fleetwood Assassin who lived "a life of booze, drugs and street fighting" until she took up the sport when she was 26, gets an MBE, as does Dee Caffari, the first woman to sail single-handedly non-stop around the world "the wrong way" against prevailing winds and currents.
Terry Griffiths, the now retired Welsh snooker player who became world champion at his first attempt, is made an OBE.
**************************
Arts and academia
16/06/2007
Historian and television presenter Dr David Starkey, once described as the rudest man in Britain - a remark that greatly enhanced his value as a broadcaster, speaker and writer - is made a CBE for services to history.
There is a damehood for Prof Jocelyn Susan Bell Burnell, the radio astronomer whose 1967 discovery that pulsar stars release regular bursts of radio waves is ranked as a milestone in the history of astrophysics.
Michael Eavis, dairy farmer and committed environmentalist who created and still runs the Glastonbury Festival, is given a CBE.
The acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter Stephen Poliakoff, whose film She's Been Away won awards at the Venice Film Festival, becomes a CBE.
Opera singer Rosalind Plowright and Welsh tenor Stuart Burrows are both awarded the OBE. Plowright, who has performed in virtually every major opera house in the world, as well as an actress in the BBC series House of Eliott, is regarded as one of Britain's leading opera singers.
Carmen Munroe, the Guyana-born actress best known as Shirley in the British sitcom Desmond (1989-94), and founder of Talawa, Britain's leading black theatre company, is given an OBE.
Cricketer Ian "Beefy" Botham heads the list of sport stars, actors, artists and other high achievers acknowledged in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours.
The former England captain, known affectionately as Beefy, is to receive a knighthood in recognition of his charity work and sporting success
------------------
The author Salman Rushdie, who spent several years living under the threat of death after an Iranian fatwa, will also become a knight
------------------
Dame Edna Everage creator Barry Humphries receives a CBE
-----------------
... along with Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis
----------------
The music world is honoured with an OBE for the singer Joe Cocker...
-----------------
... while there are also honours for the popular historian David Starkey (CBE), author of bestselling "The Monarchy", once described as the "rudest man in Britain"...
----------------
... and Shami Chakrabarti (CBE), the director of human rights group Liberty, who has been a fierce critic of the Government's anti-terror laws
---------------
Actor Peter Sallis who played the hapless Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine, and voiced the inventor Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit films, receives an OBE...
--------------
... as does Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs, who has just retired from the Welsh national team
thetelegraph.co.uk
Also knighted is former England cricket star Ian Botham, who helped England win the Ashes in amazing style in 1981.
Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs, who has been at the club since 1993 and has won a record 9 Premiership titles, has been awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).
Australian Barry Humphries, who dresses as a woman to play Dame Edna Everidge (who was given a title before Humphries!), was given a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).
But both Giggs and Humphries cannot call themselves "Sir" as only the two highest-ranking medals allow you to become "Sir", whereas the CBE ranks 3rd and the OBE ranks 4th.
Former Soviet spy, defector and double agent Oleg Gordievsky is appointed a CMG (Companion of the Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George) for "services to the security of the United Kingdom".
************************************************
A new chapter opens in the life of Sir Salman
By Caroline Davies
16/06/2007
The Telegraph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire
Salman Rushdie, the writer who lived in hiding for years under threat of death from a fatwa, today becomes Sir Salman in a Queen's Birthday Honours List which also sees former cricketer Ian Botham given the same award.
Sir Salman Rushdie: "Thrilled and humbled'
The two knights are among scores of leading figures from the stage, screen, literature, academia and the sporting world who join hundreds of "ordinary people" honoured.
Perhaps the most remarkable inclusion is former Soviet spy, defector and double agent Oleg Gordievsky who is appointed a CMG (Companion of the Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George) for "services to the security of the United Kingdom".
Mr Gordievsky's honour - the same as held by James Bond - is announced in the Diplomatic List and comes as tensions between Russian and Britain have increased following the murder of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.
Sir Salman, 59, whose life was irrevocably changed in 1989 with the issuing of a fatwa by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini over his book The Satanic Verses, said: "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way."
Now spending much of his time in the United States, the Booker prize-winner was forced into hiding and guarded by Special Branch for nine years until Teheran withdrew support for the death sentence, a decision which gradually allowed him to return to public life.
Sir Ian too was "delighted" with his knighthood, especially as his flat-mate from his Somerset days, the West Indies cricket great Sir Viv Richards, had already got one.
"How many people would have thought that Viv and I would be here when we started out in his flat as teenagers and used to go across the road to Roy Marshall's pub?" he said. The 51-year-old was honoured for his sporting achievements as well as for the millions he has raised through fund-raising walks for Leukaemia Research - including one across the Alps with elephants.
"My wife Kath ran most of the walks, and this will be very much a family celebration," said Sir Ian.
Barry Humphries has been awarded a CBE: 'At last I can address
Sir Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage on an improved footing'
For Barry Humphries, also known as Dame Edna Everage, the award of a CBE will mean another trip to Buckingham Palace.
The Australian entertainer, who also introduced the nation to "cultural attache" Sir Les Patterson, provided a memorable moment when he appeared at the Golden Jubilee pop concert and introduced the Queen with the words: "The jubilee girl is here, possums!"
Humphries, 63, who learned of his CBE after coming off stage in Brisbane, said: "I am deeply honoured.
At last I can address Sir Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage on an improved footing."
To show there are no hard feelings from Downing Street, an award goes to Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights group Liberty who has been one of the most persistent thorns in the Government side.
The barrister, 38, who, as a former Home Office lawyer knows exactly how to hit the government, received the CBE. "I'm not the most predictable choice," she said.
"No one was more surprised than me, particularly when it must have been recommended by this Government that I have fought so hard."
************************
Showbusiness and sport
16/06/2007
Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs OBE
As the voice of cheese-loving inventor Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit films, Peter Sallis is known to a generation of children. But it is his extraordinarily long and successful career that today earns the 87-year-old actor his OBE.
"I'm flattered. I don't even dream about these things, which is probably just as well," said Sallis, who became known to millions during his 30 years as hapless Norman Clegg in the BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine.
An OBE also goes to actress Sylvia Syms, 73, who last year played the Queen Mother in the film The Queen. Comedy actor Bill Pertwee, 80, Hodges the airwarden of Dad's Army fame, receives an MBE, as does Glen Murphy, from The Bill and Dr Who - both for services to charity. Gravelly-voiced rock singer Joe Cocker gets an OBE.
There are OBEs too for sitcom writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Ryan Giggs, the Wales and Manchester United footballer, ends his international career on a high with an OBE. He has won more English championship medals than any other player.
Teddy Sheringham, the former England striker, who has played for Millwall, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth and who was still playing in the Premiership for West Ham last season in his 40s, receives an MBE.
Jane Couch, the female boxer known as The Fleetwood Assassin who lived "a life of booze, drugs and street fighting" until she took up the sport when she was 26, gets an MBE, as does Dee Caffari, the first woman to sail single-handedly non-stop around the world "the wrong way" against prevailing winds and currents.
Terry Griffiths, the now retired Welsh snooker player who became world champion at his first attempt, is made an OBE.
**************************
Arts and academia
16/06/2007
Historian and television presenter Dr David Starkey, once described as the rudest man in Britain - a remark that greatly enhanced his value as a broadcaster, speaker and writer - is made a CBE for services to history.
There is a damehood for Prof Jocelyn Susan Bell Burnell, the radio astronomer whose 1967 discovery that pulsar stars release regular bursts of radio waves is ranked as a milestone in the history of astrophysics.
Michael Eavis, dairy farmer and committed environmentalist who created and still runs the Glastonbury Festival, is given a CBE.
The acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter Stephen Poliakoff, whose film She's Been Away won awards at the Venice Film Festival, becomes a CBE.
Opera singer Rosalind Plowright and Welsh tenor Stuart Burrows are both awarded the OBE. Plowright, who has performed in virtually every major opera house in the world, as well as an actress in the BBC series House of Eliott, is regarded as one of Britain's leading opera singers.
Carmen Munroe, the Guyana-born actress best known as Shirley in the British sitcom Desmond (1989-94), and founder of Talawa, Britain's leading black theatre company, is given an OBE.
Cricketer Ian "Beefy" Botham heads the list of sport stars, actors, artists and other high achievers acknowledged in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours.
The former England captain, known affectionately as Beefy, is to receive a knighthood in recognition of his charity work and sporting success
------------------
The author Salman Rushdie, who spent several years living under the threat of death after an Iranian fatwa, will also become a knight
------------------
Dame Edna Everage creator Barry Humphries receives a CBE
-----------------
... along with Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis
----------------
The music world is honoured with an OBE for the singer Joe Cocker...
-----------------
... while there are also honours for the popular historian David Starkey (CBE), author of bestselling "The Monarchy", once described as the "rudest man in Britain"...
----------------
... and Shami Chakrabarti (CBE), the director of human rights group Liberty, who has been a fierce critic of the Government's anti-terror laws
---------------
Actor Peter Sallis who played the hapless Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine, and voiced the inventor Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit films, receives an OBE...
--------------
... as does Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs, who has just retired from the Welsh national team
thetelegraph.co.uk