At present great importance is attached to the teaching of foreign languages. No doubt, it happens not without purpose

Prizes and awards

• 
  1986 PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, for Still Life
  
• 
  1987 Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bradford
  
• 
  1990 CBE^[12]
  
• 
  1990 Booker Prize for Fiction, Possession: A Romance
  
• 
  1990 Irish Times International Fiction Prize Possession: A Romance
  
• 
  1991 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book) Possession: A Romance
  
• 
  1991 Honorary Doctorate from the University of York
  
• 
  1991 Honorary Doctorate from the University of Durham
  
• 
  1992 Honorary Doctorate from the University of Nottingham
  
• 
  1993 Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liverpool
  
• 
  1994 Honorary Doctorate from the University of Portsmouth
  
• 
  1995 Honorary Doctorate from the University of London
  
• 
  1995 Premio Malaparte (Italy)
  
• 
  1995 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye
  
• 
  1998 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye
  
• 
  1999 DBE "for services to Literature"^[13]
  
• 
  1999 Hon. DLitt from the University of Cambridge
  
• 
  2000 Hon. Fellow, London Institute
  
• 
  2000 Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sheffield
  
• 
  2004 Honorary Doctorate from the University of Kent
  
• 
  2004 Fellow, University College London
  
• 
  2002 Shakespeare Prize (Germany)
  
• 
  2007 Honorary degree from the University of Winchester.
  
• 
  2009 Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix^[14] (Canada)
  
• 
  2009 Man Booker Prize, The Children's Book (shortlist)
  
• 
  2010 Honorary Doctorate from Leiden University
  
• 
  2010 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, The Children's Book
  
• 
  2016 Erasmus Prize^[15][16]
  
• 
  2017 Fellow of the British Academy of the British Academy^[17]
  
• 
  2017 Park Kyong-ni Prize^[18]
  
• 
  2017 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement^[19][20]
  
• 
  2018 Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award^[21]