13/06/2026
So very well deserved 📚✨️
We are incredibly proud to announce that Julia Donaldson has been recognised in The King's Birthday Honours list! 🏅📚
Julia Donaldson has been honoured with a Damehood (DBE) to celebrate her extraordinary career. Julia has written some of the world’s best-loved children’s books including Room on the Broom, Gozzle, and of course The Gruffalo. On the 10th of September, Julia will publish the much-awaited Gruffalo Granny with illustrator Axel Scheffler, partnering with nine literacy and disability charities to bring the wonderful new story to as many children and families as possible in The National Year of Reading. 👑✨
Julia Donaldson said: "Receiving this honour has been a very happy surprise. It's really gratifying to have children's books recognised in this way. I'm so grateful for all the enthusiastic support I've had during my career from people in the book world - those in the very many libraries, schools and bookshops I've visited over the years, my wonderful illustrators, the publishers and literacy charities I've been involved with, and of course my readers. Going back further, perhaps my biggest debt of all is to the library which was in walking distance of my childhood home and the librarian who helped me discover the books and authors that I came to love. Without that place and person I probably would never have become a children's writer - let alone a Dame! So I'm making a plea to the government for more libraries and more librarians in our communities and schools, so that the current generation of children can enjoy all the benefits that reading brings."
