SHE built a career in the lofty world of academic libraries.

And away from work, Biddy Fisher likes nothing more than to climb aboard her prized BMW 800 and roar across the country.

Biddy a former president of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, has now been honoured for her services to libraries with an OBE from the Queen.

“I am overawed and I feel truly honoured”, she said.

“I have spent my working life doing a job I love: trying to help with people’s professional development and to improve the image of libraries.”

Ms Fisher, of Denby Dale, is married to John Tarrant, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, and shared the love of motorcycling with him.

Mr Tarrant has now given up the sport but his wife, who had her first ride on a motorcycle with her dad at the age of nine months, still loves the exhilaration.

Indeed, she combined her career and her passion with a memorable 1,600-mile round trip on her motorcycle to a libraries conference in Milan – taking in the Swiss Alps on the way.

And she has a Twitter account of @bikerbid

Ms Fisher, who was brought up in Norfolk, worked in mobile libraries before getting a job at the University of East Anglia in the early 1970s.

She had a stint at the University of London before returning to East Anglia and it was there she met her husband to be.

“We actually met over the negotiating table,” she said with a smile.

“John was a pro vice-chancellor at the university and I was a shop steward for the staff side.

“We both had very strong principles.”