Mary Berry ‘in line for damehood’ as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours list

Baker has written more than 70 cookbooks throughout her career

(Getty Images)

Mary Berry is to be handed a damehood in the Queen’s forthcoming Birthday Honours list, it has been reported.

The former Great British Bake Off judge has been chosen for the honour after six decades of cookery broadcasting and writing, The Sunday Telegraph said.

The honours list will also including medical workers, fundraisers and volunteers who have been involved in the response to the coronavirus.

The list was finalised before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in the UK, but it was postponed in June so that people who played crucial roles during the outbreak could be added. Recipients will be officially recognised on Saturday 10 October.

Berry received a CBE in 2012 for services to culinary arts and has written more than 70 cookbooks throughout her career.

The baker trained at Le Cordon Bleu – a cooking school in Paris – before becoming the cookery editor of Housewife magazine, followed by Ideal Home magazine in the 1960s.

She also featured as a judge on the Great British Bake Off until 2016, when she left the show out of “loyalty” to the BBC when it moved to Channel 4.

Most recently, Berry has been a judge on BBC One’s Best Home Cook and presented shows including Mary Berry’s Simple Comforts and Classic Mary Berry.

The 85-year-old once described being invited to Buckingham Palace for dinner with the Queen as her “greatest memory”.

“When I first got the call to invite me I had thought it was a joke. [My son] answered the phone and said: ‘It’s Buckingham Palace for you,’” she told students during an address at Cambridge University in 2017.

Berry is to be recognised in the Birthday Honours alongside hundreds of frontline workers who played a role in the pandemic.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently praised the “dedication, courage and compassion” shown by the recipients.

“The coronavirus pandemic is the greatest health challenge in our lifetime. We all have to play our part, but the dedication, courage and compassion seen from these recipients, be it responding on the frontline or out in their communities providing support to the most vulnerable, is an inspiration to us all,” he said.

“We owe them a debt of gratitude and the 2020 Queen’s Birthday honours will be the first of many occasions where we can thank them as a nation.”

The Independent has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.