Tracey Emin is among those given the royal seal of approval, with the award of a CBE in the New Year honours list.
Tracy was born in Croydon to a English mother and Turkish Cypriot father and brought up in Margate.
The 49-year-old artist has been best known for eye-opening works including Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, the tent embroidered with names that was destroyed in a warehouse fire in 2004, and My Bed, an installation of her unmade dirty bed including objects such as used condoms, discarded tampon applicators and blood-spotted underwear.
Nevertheless, Emin said the honour might have been a surprise to some: “I think they pushed me in at the deep end. But I’m absolutely thrilled. It’s been insane trying to keep it a secret but I’m really looking forward to seeing the look on my mum’s face.”