Mary Berry took home the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards.
The 79-year-old television personality, who is best known as the judge on ‘The Great British Bake Off’, received the honour at the annual ceremony which took place at the prestigious Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London last night (26.11.14).
Speaking after collecting her trophy, Mary said: "It is very exciting for someone who failed exams at school to win this award, it’s really lovely."
As she collected her award, Mary appeared to well up as she praised her loyal assistant, Lucy Young – who she revealed often gives her fashion advice.
Mary told BANG Showbiz: ‘Lucy Young has been with me for 25 years. [She’s] really well trained in cooking now, but now she says, ‘Ooh you can’t wear that’."
Mary has written an impressive 80 recipe books and sold more than 5 million copies since she started out in 1970 and culinary legend Ken Hom presented her with her latest award.
Previous winners include ‘Harry Potter’ author J.K. Rowling and Jackie Collins.
Also honoured at the event were ‘Little Britain’ actor-turned author David Walliams who took home the award for Children’s Book of the Year for the third consecutive year for his latest title, ‘Awful Auntie’.
David was also the recipient of the Audible.co.uk Audiobook of the Year award.
The full list of winners are as follows:
Outstanding Achievement – Mary Berry
Crime/Thriller Book of the Year – ‘I Am Pilgrim’ by Terry Hayes
Magic FM Autobiography/Biography of the Year – ‘Please, Mister Postman’ by Alan Johnson
Food & Drink Book of the Year – ‘Plenty More’ by Yotam Ottolenghi
Children’s Book of the Year – ‘Awful Auntie’ by David Walliams
Audible.co.uk Audiobook of the Year – ‘Awful Auntie’ by David Walliams
International Author of the Year – ‘We Are Completely Beside Ourselves’ by Karen Joy Fowler
Books Are My Bag New Writer of the Year – ‘The Miniaturist’ by Jessie Burton
Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of the Year – ‘The Shock of the Fall’ by Nathan Filer
Non-fiction Book of the Year – ‘Love, Nina’ by Nina Stibbe
UK Author of the Year – ‘Us’ by David Nicholls
Mary Berry wins Outstanding Achievement Award
