Poet Kate Clanchy said she would like to think her MBE honours her work in schools.
The Scottish writer, 52, who has been a teacher in state schools for nearly 30 years, is made an MBE for services to literature in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
She said: “I was very surprised to be nominated for an MBE and also very grateful. I have worked in all sorts of literary fields over the years – poetry, memoir, fiction, reviewing – but the most consistent thread has been my work in schools.
“I like to think this award honours that, and the importance of literature and creativity in the classroom.”
Her next book, Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me, described as a “candid” and “deeply moving” insight into life in British state schools, will be published next year.
