ACCLAIMED novelist and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi has been made a Commander of the British Empire for his services to literature and drama.

The Bromley-born and raised father of three has published 20 books and plays, many of which tackle issues of sexual identity and multiculturalism in Britain and have been lauded by critics.

The son of a Pakistani father and an English mother, Mr Kureishi, 53, first rose to fame with his Oscar-nominated screenplay for the 1985 film My Beautiful Laundrette, and his first novel, the semi-autobiographical The Buddha of Suburbia, won the Whitbread First Novel award and was adapted by the BBC as a four-part television series in 1993.

He also wrote the screenplays for My Son the Fanatic, based on his own short story, and the 2006 Peter O'Toole film, Venus.

Mr Kureishi's latest novel, Something to Tell You, is due to be published this year.