The title ''‘Companion of Literature’'' is the highest award bestowed by the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

. The title was inaugurated in 1961, and is held by up to twelve living writers at any one time.

Recipients

Those who have been awarded the honour are listed below, by the year in which it was granted (the living authors who currently hold the title are indicated in bold). 1961 *

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

(30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) * E. M. Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) * John Masefield (1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) * W. Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) * G. M. Trevelyan (16 February 1876 – 21 July 1962) 1962 * Edmund Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) * Aldous Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) 1963 * Edith Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) * Evelyn Waugh (28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) 1964 * Elizabeth Bowen (7 June 1899 – 22 February 1973) *

Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...

(27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972) 1967 * Osbert Sitwell (6 December 1892 – 4 May 1969) 1968 *

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

(28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) * Ivy Compton-Burnett (5 June 1884 – 27 August 1969) * Compton Mackenzie (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) * Rebecca West (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983) 1972 * Lord David Cecil (9 April 1902 – 1 January 1986) * Cyril Connolly (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) *

L. P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) was a British novelist and short story writer. Although his first fiction was published in 1924, his career was slow to take off. His best-known novels are the '' Eustace and Hilda'' ...

(30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) * Angus Wilson (11 August 1913 – 31 May 1991) 1974 *

Ruth Pitter Emma Thomas "Ruth" Pitter, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (7 November 1897 – 29 February 1992) was a British poet. She was the first woman to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955, and was appoi ...

(7 November 1897 – 29 February 1992) * Kenneth Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) * Arthur Koestler (5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) 1978 * Philip Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) * David Garnett (9 March 1892 – 17 February 1981) * Stephen Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) 1983 *

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

(13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) * William Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) * Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) 1987 *

Rosamund Lehmann Rosamond Nina Lehmann (3 February 1901 – 12 March 1990) was an English novelist and translator. Her first novel, ''Dusty Answer'' (1927), was a ''succès de scandale''; she subsequently became established in the literary world and intimate ...

(3 February 1901 – 12 March 1990) * Iris Murdoch (15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) *

V. S. Pritchett Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and literary critic. Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. His non-fiction works incl ...

(16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) *

Steven Runciman Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman ( – ), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume ''A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54). He was a strong admirer of the Byzantine Empire. His history's negative ...

(7 July 1903 – 1 November 2000) 1991 * Anthony Burgess (25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) * Seamus Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) * Patrick Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) * Muriel Spark (1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006) 1994 *

Sybille Bedford Sybille Bedford, OBE (16 March 1911 – 17 February 2006) was a German-born English writer of non-fiction and semi-autobiographical fiction books. She was a recipient of the Golden PEN Award. Early life She was born as Sybille Aleid Elsa von ...

(16 March 1911 – 17 February 2006) * V. S. Naipaul (17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) * William Trevor (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016) 1998 *

D. J. Enright Dennis Joseph Enright Order of the British Empire, OBE FRSL (11 March 1920 – 31 December 2002) was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic. He authored ''Academic Year'' (1955), ''Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor'' (1969) and a wide ran ...

(11 March 1920 – 31 December 2002) *

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

(10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) 2001 * Charles Causley (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) *

Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing (; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British-Zimbabwean novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remain ...

(22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) 2004 *

Michael Holroyd Sir Michael de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (born 27 August 1935) is an English biographer. Early life and education Holroyd was born in London, the son of Basil de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (a descendant of Sir George Sowley Holroyd, Justice of the King' ...

(27 August 1935 -- ) * Tom Stoppard (3 July 1937 -- ) 2007 * Michael Frayn (8 September 1933 -- ) * Peter Porter (16 February 1929 – 23 April 2010) 2012 * Brian Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) *

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...

(November 18, 1939 -- ) * Alice Munro (10 July 1931 -- ) 2020 * Anita Desai (24 June 1937 -- ) * Kazuo Ishiguro (8 November 1954 -- ) * Hilary Mantel (6 July 1952 -- 22 September 2022) * Edna O’Brien (15 December 1930 -- ) * Philip Pullman (19 October 1946 -- ) * Colin Thubron (14 June 1939 -- )

Notes

{{reflist Royal Society of Literature awards Awards established in 1961 1961 establishments in the United Kingdom