Celebrated North Yorkshire born Transworld author Kate Atkinson is delighted at becoming an MBE for producing a series of best-selling and critically acclaimed books. The award-winning novelist from York said the honour was a boost for the arts and a personal tribute to her efforts over more than 15 years as a published writer.

Speaking after the receiving the honour from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace yesterday, she added: "I'm delighted and honoured and very surprised to get the MBE. It's a great tribute to the arts. I think it's a really nice thing for writers to get awards. If you look at who's here today, obviously people are getting awards for charity (work) which they should do, but there are very few people from the arts. I'm not criticising, I'm just saying it's nice."

Kate exploded on to the literary world in 1995 when her debut Behind The Scenes At The Museum won the Whitbread book of the year award, beating a host of famous names. Kate went on to pen Human Croquet and Emotionally Weird. Her most recent novels feature the former detective Jackson Brodie. Jackson has also proved to be a hit on the small screen as well in the dramatised BBC series Case Histories featuring Jason Isaacs.

Kate Atkinson was born in York and lived in Whitby for many years. She now lives in Edinburgh.