Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel receives damehood

Hilary Mantel has been recognised for her services to literature

Hilary Mantel has been made a dame by the Prince of Wales for her services to literature.

The 62-year-old Wolf Hall author was honoured during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Her trilogy of novels about the life of Henry VIII's adviser Thomas Cromwell has been widely critically acclaimed. She won the Booker Prize in 2009 and 2012.

Mantel's damehood was announced in the Queen's Birthday Honours last year.

A six-part dramatic adaptation of Wolf Hall and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies is currently being shown on BBC Two.

The novels chronicle the rise of Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith who became King Henry VIII's chief minister, as he navigated the corridors of power in the Tudor court.

Mantel, who was born in Glossop in Derbyshire and grew up nearby, said her decision to be a writer was inspired by the end of her parents' marriage and personal illness.

Her first novel Every Day is Mother's Day, published in 1985, told of an agoraphobic clairvoyant, her daughter and their social worker.

Mantel, who studied law before becoming a social worker, was appointed CBE in 2006 and has won a string of literary honours.

Last year the author, who lives in Devon, hit the headlines after she published a short story imagining the assassination of Margaret Thatcher.