This news comes from Dave "Hugo" Langford's "Ansible" newsletter (
http://news.ansible.co.uk/a223.html):
'The University of Bristol have suddenly upped and said they'll give me an honorary D.Litt. this summer! Could have knocked me down with the proverbial. This sort of thing has to go through Solemn Committees full of serious men who do not know fantasy exists, so how this happened I am at a loss to know. / Oh, and did you hear that Howl's Moving Castle is nominated for an Oscar? On the strength of it, the Japanese have sent me
Sophie's walking stick and a purple plush bag to keep it in -- plus two stone of jigsaw puzzles and a tiny, tiny ring.' (The other Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature Film are Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.)
I hadn't been paying attention to the Oscars thread, and don't really pay attention to the Oscars themselves, but that's nice for
Howl. And interesting that a fantasist would be awarded an honorary doctorate. But of course, she's British, and it's a British university offering the award. Makes me wonder, though, if the uni allows its students to study fantasy.
