Forget the millions of sales and the cabinet groaning with prizes. JK Rowling has just received the biggest honour of her career to date: she’s been knighted by France.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday bestowed the title of knight of France’s prestigious Legion of Honour on the Harry Potter author at a ceremony in the Elysée presidential palace. “You’ve helped give young people back the taste for reading and writing,” Sarkozy told Rowling, thanking her for making children understand that “reading is not a punishment, but a source of pleasure”—Alison Flood