Those who have been awarded the honour are listed below, by the year in which it was granted; those still living are indicated in bold. In 2020, six authors were announced as recipients of the title "Companion of Literature", the first honorees since 2012.
1961 •
Winston Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) •
E. M. Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) •
John Masefield (1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) •
W. Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) •
G. M. Trevelyan (16 February 1876 – 21 July 1962)
1962 •
Edmund Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) •
Aldous Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963)
1963 •
Edith Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) •
Evelyn Waugh (28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966)
1964 •
Elizabeth Bowen (7 June 1899 – 22 February 1973) •
Cecil Day-Lewis (27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972)
1967 •
Osbert Sitwell (6 December 1892 – 4 May 1969)
1968 •
John Betjeman (28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) •
Ivy Compton-Burnett (5 June 1884 – 27 August 1969) •
Compton Mackenzie (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) •
Rebecca West (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983)
1972 •
Lord David Cecil (9 April 1902 – 1 January 1986) •
Cyril Connolly (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) •
L. P. Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) •
Angus Wilson (11 August 1913 – 31 May 1991)
1974 •
Ruth Pitter (7 November 1897 – 29 February 1992) •
Kenneth Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) •
Arthur Koestler (5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983)
1978 •
Philip Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) •
David Garnett (9 March 1892 – 17 February 1981) •
Stephen Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995)
1983 •
Samuel Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) •
William Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) •
Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991)
1987 •
Rosamund Lehmann (3 February 1901 – 12 March 1990) •
Iris Murdoch (15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) •
V. S. Pritchett (16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) •
Steven Runciman (7 July 1903 – 1 November 2000)
1991 •
Anthony Burgess (25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) •
Seamus Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) •
Patrick Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) •
Muriel Spark (1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006)
1994 •
Sybille Bedford (16 March 1911 – 17 February 2006) •
V. S. Naipaul (17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) •
William Trevor (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016)
1998 •
D. J. Enright (11 March 1920 – 31 December 2002) •
Harold Pinter (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008)
2001 •
Charles Causley (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) •
Doris Lessing (22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013)
2004 •
Michael Holroyd (27 August 1935 – ) •
Tom Stoppard (3 July 1937 – 29 November 2025)
2007 •
Michael Frayn (8 September 1933 – ) •
Peter Porter (16 February 1929 – 23 April 2010)
2012 •
Brian Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) •
Margaret Atwood (18 November 1939 – ) •
Alice Munro (10 July 1931 – 13 May 2024)
2020 •
Anita Desai (24 June 1937 – ) •
Kazuo Ishiguro (8 November 1954 – ) •
Hilary Mantel (6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) •
Edna O’Brien (15 December 1930 – 27 July 2024) •
Philip Pullman (19 October 1946 – ) •
Colin Thubron (14 June 1939 – ) ==Notes==