There are honours lists, and then there are honours lists. This one’s got a rugby league legend, two of Britain’s best-loved children’s authors, and enough feel-good energy to carry you through to the weekend.
Kevin Sinfield, the former Leeds Rhinos captain who became as famous for his extraordinary fundraising marathons as his on-field brilliance, has been knighted. Since his close friend and former teammate Rob Burrow was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2019, Sinfield has run himself into the ground, quite literally, raising millions for MND research. A knighthood, most people would argue, is the least he deserves.
It’s the kind of story that reminds you sport can be about something bigger than trophies. Sinfield has completed gruelling ultra-marathon challenges, once running seven marathons in seven days, and the money raised has helped fund research that could one day change lives. Rob Burrow passed away in June 2024, but his legacy, and Sinfield’s role in it, will clearly endure.
On the literary front, Malorie Blackman and Julia Donaldson are both made dames, and it’s difficult to imagine two more deserving recipients.
Blackman, the author of the groundbreaking Noughts and Crosses series, has spent decades writing fiction that challenges young readers to think seriously about race, identity, and justice. She served as Children’s Laureate from 2013 to 2015, and her influence on a generation of British readers is genuinely hard to overstate.
Donaldson, meanwhile, gave the world the Gruffalo in 1999, and that snaggle-toothed woodland beast has since sold over 13.5 million copies in the UK alone. Her books have introduced countless children to the sheer pleasure of rhyme and story. Also a former Children’s Laureate, she’s something close to a national treasure.
Honours lists can sometimes feel like a parade of the already-famous, but this one has a warmth to it. A man who ran through pain and grief for his dying friend. Two women who shaped how British children understand the world through words.
The question now, perhaps, is who else is quietly out there doing something extraordinary, and how long before we notice.
