In the summer of 1988 William Golding was knighted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He was particularly struck by two aspects of the process. First, the lowlier the order the more the Queen talked to you. Secondly, she knew in each case why the order was awarded. After tapping him on the shoulder with the sword, she gave him his order and ribbon, and then asked him as she shook his hand, ‘And are you still writing?’ ‘Oh yes, Marm’, he replied, with dutiful brevity. ‘Oh good’, she said, and with just the suspicion of a slight push made him aware that he was ‘done’.
https://www.william-golding.co.uk/timeline#the-double-tongue
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1983 was awarded to William Golding "for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today."