Susan Hill made a Dame: I’ve caught up with Dame Judi Dench!

Author Susan Hill said she was delighted to have caught up with her friend Dame Judi Dench after being named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

The novelist, 78, best-known for The Woman In Black, is made a dame for services to literature.

She said: “I was very surprised but pleased too, of course.

“Lovely for me and for books and readers and writing and writers.

“The great thing about honours is that they are fun.

“I’m also chuffed to have caught up with my friend Dame Judi Dench!”

The writer, born in Scarborough, has published several novels as well as working as a journalist and contributing scripts to Radio 4 soap The Archers.

Her ghost story, The Woman In Black, inspired a long-running West End play and was adapted into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe in his first post-Harry Potter role.

Hill has written for children, runs her own publishing company and is the author of a string of crime novels about the adventures of Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler.