Prize-winning author William Trevor has received an honorary knighthood in recognition of his services to literature.

The Irish author received the honorary KBE from Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on Wednesday.

The book recalls Ian McEwan's Atonement

Trevor is now considered one of Ireland's greatest living authors and is renowned for his short story telling.

His latest novel, The Story of Lucy Gault, was shortlisted for both the 2002 Booker Prize, for which he was favourite but missed out on, and the Whitbread Prize, which will be judged in January 2002.

He has also adapted several of his own works for the stage, television and radio.

Ms Jowell said: "The award of an honorary knighthood acknowledges the long and distinguished career of a very talented writer.

"He has produced an enormous body of work over nearly 40 years and won many of the most prestigious literary awards."

Trevor, 78, started out as an artist, with sculpture being his favoured form and was taught by the famous sculptor Oisin Kelly in Dublin.

He exhibited his sculptures in Dublin and England and was joint winner of the International Year of the Political Prisoner art competition in 1952.

Commissioned

Soon afterwards he emigrated to England with his wife, settling in the West Country, where wrote his first novel.

But the book did not bring him fame and fortune and the couple moved to London so he could begin work as a copywriter in an advertising agency.

The work was not for him and he eventually quit, but he had found a new passion for writing and had stories published in the Transatlantic Review and the London Magazine.

His talent for storytelling was eventually spotted by publishers Bodley Head, which commissioned him to write a novel.

He reworked one of his unpublished short stories, The Old Boys, which went on to win the Hawthornden Prize in 1964.

His winning ways have continued over the years including the Whitbread Prize for Fiction three times for The Children of Dynmouth (1976), Fools of Fortune (1983) and Felicia's Journey (1994).

In 1999 he received the David Cohen Literature Prize for a lifetime's achievement as a writer.