Bill Bryson would no longer accept an honour from the Queen because 'there's a tendency for it to make people just stop trying'

The travel writer accepted an honorary OBE in 2006

Bill Bryson meets fans and signs copies of his book 'One Summer: America 1927' at Waterstones in London, England ( (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images))

Bill Bryson has many titles - he made an OBE and is a Fellow of the Royal Society - but would think twice before accepting any such honours again.

The writer was asked at the Cheltenham Literature Festival whether he would accept a spot on the Queen’s honours list, to which he said "no, I don't think I would now.”

“I would think twice about it because my own feeling is that it rewards people in a way that, very often, they feel that’s all they have to do, that they don’t have to do anything more."

In his latest book, The Road to Little Dribbling, Bryson criticises the honorary system, saying at the festival that he had grown disillusioned by since becoming a chancellor at Durham University.

During his tenure between 2005 and 2011 he started a campaign to get people sign up to the National Organ Donor register.

"I would write an individual letter to each chancellor — about 100 of them — asking if they would join this campaign. And what I found was a number did respond very warmly,” he said, according to Radio Times.

"But quite a number of others didn't respond at all or responded like 'this isn’t anything to do with what interests me, with what I do’ and I had a strong feeling from that that they get to a certain point of reward and think ‘I've done it, why should I do anything more now? They can't give me any more peerages so I’ll just stop here.’

"I think there's a tendency for that to happen. I know lots of people in the House of Lords — some because of inheritance, some because of appointment – who deserve it, but I just think there's a tendency for it to make people just stop trying.”

He went on to admit that these claims are “completely hypocritical”, citing his acceptance of an honorary OBE. He continued: ”As I say in the book I always put vanity in front of principle…"

Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling is available now.