Actor-author Peter Ustinov and writer Kingsley Amis were listed Saturday as the newest knights of the realm in the birthday honors list of Queen Elizabeth II.
Medals and awards were showered on hundreds of other Britons, some of whom made their mark in such obscure professions as cheese-grading and keykeeping.The Most Rev. Robert Runcie receives a peerage that will enable him to sit in the House of Lords as Baron Runcie following his retirement as Anglican archbishop of Canterbury next year.
Dame Lydia Dunn, a senior Hong Kong legislator who has become a well-known figure in the preparations for China's takeover of the British colony in 1997, becomes a baroness.
The government rewards the loyalty and service of hundreds of people twice each year - at the New Year and in June in honor of the monarch's official birthday.
Queen Elizabeth was born April 21, 1926, but her official birthday is marked in June.
Ustinov, the 69-year-old actor, author, dramatist, film director, newspaper columnist and raconteur, becomes a Knight Bachelor, as does Amis, 67, author of "The Old Devils," "Lucky Jim" and most recently, "The Folks That Live on The Hill."
Anita Brookner, who won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1984 for her novel, "Hotel du Lac," was made a CBE, or Companion of British Empire. The same honor goes to actress Eileen Atkins, an actress and co-creator of the television series "Upstairs, Downstairs."
Fashion designer Bruce Oldfield, 39, reared in a Yorkshire children's home, became a favorite fashion designer of the Princess of Wales. He was made an OBE, or Officer of the Order of British Empire.
Tracy Edwards, 27, whose all-woman crew placed second in their class in the Whitbread around-the-word yacht race, became an MBE, or Member of the Order of British Empire.
Richard Craig was honored with an MBE, for services to English fishing, and Cathleen Sampson, former regional gypsy liaison officer in East Anglia, was made one too.
Opera singer Jane Manning was made an OBE, and Elizabeth Blaydes got the same honor for services to lacrosse.
British Empire Medals went to John Blake, mace-bearer from Monmouth, Gwent; Herbert Plenty, cheese-grader for the Milk Marketing Board, and Florence Clary, the keykeeper of Mistley Towers, Essex.