Jonathan is also the Director of the University's new CAPITAL Centre, a £4.5 million performance partnership between the University and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Centre is using theatre performance skills and experience to enhance student learning and University research and resources to shape the development of the RSC acting companies.

Jonathan Bate has lectured on Shakespeare and other literary matters worldwide, and in 1999 was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. He is a critic and reviewer for BBC Radio and for various newspapers including The Guardian and the Sunday Telegraph.

Jonathan's most recent books are a new edition of Clare's Selected Poetry (Faber and Faber, 2004) and a revision of the Penguin Classics edition of Andrew Marvell's Complete Poetry (2005). He is on the Board of the Royal Shakespeare Company, for whom he is editing a new edition of Shakespeare's complete works, which leaves him little time for his next book, which is to be called All the Queen's Men: Culture and Ideas in Shakespeare's England.

The Queen's 80th birthday honours list was released on Saturday 17 June.