The Académie Française, one of France's oldest and most hallowed institutions, has admitted a British national as one of its members fro the first time ever, reports RFI.
On Thursday, during a solemn ceremony, Sir Michael Edwards is formally invested as a member of the Académie Française.
Edwards will sit in the numbered chair vacated by the French writer Jean Dutourd, who died in January. There are only 40 members of the Académie and as they are elected for life, the membership only changes occasionally.
The members, known as "the Immortals" in France, are elected by the existing members and have a duty to safeguard the French language.
Born in 1938 in Barnes, Edwards learned French when he was at grammar school and has since spent his life between England and France.
Poet, author and specialist in Rimbaud, Racine and Shakespeare, he studied modern languages at Cambridge University.
He has published many works in English and in French, and frequently uses both languages in a single work.
Among his most recent work is "L'étrangeté" (2010), "Le bonheur d'être ici" (2011) and "Le rire de Molière" and "Paris Aubaine" in 2012.
Read more of this report from RFI.