Richard Alford, the director of the British Council in Italy, has been made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the Queens Birthday Honours List. Alford has been director of the British Council in Italy since 1996 and is set to retire in October. Catherine Payling, the curator of the Keats-Shelley Memorial House at the foot of the Spanish Steps, has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Payling, who took over the direction of the museum in 1997, was awarded the MBE for services to British-Italian cultural relations.