Tower of London poppies creators among New Year Honours awards
The creators of the Tower of London's moving art installation of poppies have received MBEs in the New Year Honours list.
Paul Cummins and Tom Piper were given the awards in recognition of the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, which saw 888,246 ceramic poppies progressively fill the Tower's moat.
The accolades for ceramic artist Cummins and stage designer Piper have been disclosed days after they suggested they will be overlooked for a Turner Prize nomination because some in the art establishment were left unmoved by their creation.
Cummins and Piper are among 1,164 people recognised by the Queen in this year's list, which also includes widely-trailed honours for actors Joan Collins, James Corden and Sheridan Smith.
Other prominent figures honoured this year include Esther Rantzen, actors John Hurt, Kristin Scott Thomas and Emily Watson, comedienne and actress Meera Syal, novelist Ali Smith, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and designer Mary Quant
Former athletes Steve Cram and Dame Mary Peters have also been recognised, alongside 103-year-old marathon runner Fauja Singh.
Former lord mayor of London Fiona Woolf, who resigned from her role as chair of the inquiry into historic child abuse, has been given a damehood for services to the legal profession, diversity and the City of London.
The list confirms OBEs for Corden and Smith, who once dated and have enjoyed huge success since they played siblings Smithy and Rudi on the hit BBC series Gavin & Stacey.
Corden, 36, earned international acclaim in 2011 for his performance in comedic play One Man, Two Guvnors, which was a success both in the West End and on Broadway.
Smith's award caps her journey from one-time burger van worker to national treasure.
The 33-year-old actress won a Bafta for her portrayal of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs' wife, and this year she earned rave reviews for her role as Cilla Black in an ITV biopic.
Joan Collins has been made a Dame for services to charity despite saying in 2006 that she would not be given one.
"I don't have the body of work of Judi Dench and Diana Rigg," she said at the time.
Hurt has been knighted after a career lasting more than 50 years, with roles in films spanning from The Elephant Man to Harry Potter - including the infamous scene in Alien in which the monster bursts from his stomach
Scott Thomas, who appeared in Four Weddings And A Funeral and The English Patient, is to be made a Dame.
Watson, whose role in Appropriate Adult, ITV's dramatisation of the investigation into serial killer Fred West won her a Bafta, has been awarded an OBE.
Scottish writers Ali Smith and Carol Ann Duffy lead representatives of the literary world on this year's list.
Smith, whose novel How To Be Both was shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize, is given a CBE while Duffy, 59, the first female poet laureate in the post's history, is made a Dame.
The list is said to have a particular focus on those who help vulnerable children, with Childline founder Esther Rantzen, who is to be made a Dame, among the recipients to have worked in the field.
Margaret Aspinall and Trevor Hicks, of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, have been awarded CBEs in recognition of their tireless campaigning on behalf of those bereaved by the disaster in 1989.
Awards to figures from industrial and economic fields account for 12% of the total list. They include a damehood for Mary Quant, 80, who is widely credited with popularising the miniskirt.
Cressida Dick, the country's most senior female police officer, also receives a CBE. Earlier this month she announced she was to leave the Metropolitan Police after 31 years.
The Cabinet Office said 6% of those recognised are from ethnic minorities.
Some 45% of the senior awards - CBE and above - are given to women, a jump of 10% compared to the Queen's Birthday Honours list issued earlier this year.