Alan Hollinghurst and Katarina Johnson-Thompson recognised in the King’s 2025 New Years’ Honours

Hollinghurst, the author of seven novels, was awarded a knighthood for services to literature.

He said in a statement to the PA news agency: “I’m delighted and deeply touched to be given this quite unexpected honour for doing something I have always loved doing: making up stories about the world I’ve inherited and tried to play my part in.

“I take it as a great encouragement to keep going”.

Hollinghurst is the author of seven novels published by Picador, The Swimming-Pool Library, The Folding Star, The Spell, The Line of Beauty, The Stranger’s Child, The Sparsholt Affair and Our Evenings which published in October this year and was a ‘Book of the Year’ for The Guardian, The Observer, The Times, Daily Express, The Spectator, The Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and the I.

He has received the Somerset Maugham Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction and the 2004 Man Booker Prize.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson was awarded an MBE for services to Athletics after her inspiring and triumphant performance at the Paris Olympics. The summer games saw the heptathlete awarded a silver medal with a new personal best in 800m and shot put and
recording her best high jump score in five years.

Unbroken, Johnson-Thompson’s intimate, heartfelt autobiography published in November this year (Macmillan) tells her story as she never has before. She opens up about the pressures of representing Britain at the London Olympics while just sixteen years of age, and about her complex relationship with mentor-turned-rival Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Unbroken is a rare insight into the inner workings of a champion's mind: the rigorous discipline, the undying passion for sport, and the unshakable belief in one's self despite the odds.