Celebrated author Kate Atkinson will be awarded an MBE by the Prince of Wales today for an outstanding literary career.
The award winning novelist will be honoured for a body of work that began with her debut novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
It won the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year award and became a best seller earning her many fans.
She has gone on to write further books and her most recent offerings feature the former detective Jackson Brodie.
Also being honoured at the Buckingham Palace investiture ceremony is conservationist Lee Durrell, the widow of the late naturalist Gerald Durrell, who will receive an MBE.
She is an honorary director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust that her husband established to help save endangered mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
Also receiving awards will be a number of soldiers from the Parachute Regiment who will be presented with the Military Cross.