Edna O’Brien, one of Ireland’s best-loved writers, has been appointed a Dame of the British Empire for her services to literature.
She described the honour as “very gratifying”, adding: “It unites me in some etheric way to readers I don’t know and is an incentive, at 88, to keep going.”
Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is the second highest rank in the British honours system. However, as an Irish citizen, O’Brien’s title is an honorary one.
The author, who has lived in London since the 1950s came to prominence with her debut novel The Country Girls in 1962.
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