Author, actor and athlete awarded

Tony Robinson and Ian McEwan will receive two of 12 honorary degrees

Blackadder star and historian Tony Robinson, Olympic gold medallist Steve Williams and novelist Ian McEwan, are to be honoured with degrees.

Students at Oxford Brookes University provided the nominations.

Ian McEwan, garnered the 1998 Booker-prize and rower Steve Williams is part of the GB Coxless four - both have previously lived in the city.

A university spokeswoman said Tony Robinson was chosen because he had few academic awards yet achieved so much.

Steve Williams took gold at the 2004 Olympics

The spokeswoman said: "Tony was nominated specifically for making history, archaeology and politics accessible to a wider audience."

Robinson currently presents Channel 4's Time Team archaeology series, but has also written 17 children's books.

Williams is a former student at the university, where he studied history and town planning.

All three are due to join nine others being awarded in recognition of "expertise and contribution to their field" at the university's degree ceremonies starting on Friday.