J. K. Rowling , author of the Harry Potter books, has been awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by Napier University .
The Political Studies Association has awarded the following to commemorate its 50th anniversary: lifetime achievement in politics to Lord Jenkins, Lord Healey and Sir Edward Heath ; outstanding parliamentarian to Tony Benn MP; breaking the mould to Baroness Thatcher , setting the political agenda to the Fawcett Society , Greenpeace and Charter 88 ; outstanding political journalist to Neal Ascherson ; outstanding broadcast journalism to BBC Radio 4's Analysis and Granada's World in Action ; outstanding contribution to international politics and civil society to former president of Ireland Mary Robinson ; lifetime achievement in political studies to professors Bernard Crick, Brian Barry, Jean Blondel, Stanley Hoffman, Richard Rose and Dr David Butler ; outstanding political satire to Yes Minister , Beyond the Fringe and Spitting Image ; outstanding interviewer to the late Sir Robin Day .
David Kynaston , professor at City University, has won the Business Archives Council's 1999 Wadsworth Prize for Business History . The Discovery Channel and the Royal Geographical Society have given a Discovery inspiration award to Gro Harlem Brundtland , director general of the World Health Organisation; a lifetime of Discovery award to photographer and honorary director of the Museum of Science in Boston, Bradford Washborn and his wife Barbara , and a Discovery 2000 award to Julian Partridge from Bristol University.