Kate Middleton has not responded to the comments that Hilary Mantel made about her in a lecture, but the rest of the world has. Why has she remained silent? 

Many have expressed their opinions regarding Hilary Mantel's comments about Kate Middleton during a lecture she gave last month, in which she described the Duchess as 'plastic' and 'machine made". Avid royalists defended Middleton to the hilt, David Cameron even said his bit. Many others who view Kate as a woman, not just a member of the royal family, defended Mantel, arguing that her words were an attack on the press rather than the woman herself. The one opinion we all want to hear though, is Kate's, and she has remained completely silent on the matter.

Her muteness, like Mantel's verbosity, can be construed in two ways. Firstly, her apparent refusal to comment could affirm Mantel's apparent judgements. Machines are still and silent until their owners allow them to move and make sound. On the other hand, however, Kate could of course be employing those distinctly human traits, historically considered to be endowed to us by God, of choice and free will. 

While Mantel's words can indeed be interpreted in a number of ways, it's unlikely that we'll ever know Kate's true opinion on the matter, but she shall surely be heartened to see and to know that the very great majority of those who have passed their own opinions on the matter have taken her 'side'. Even those defending Mantel have not done so at the expense of Kate, but at the expense of the press, and that is great testament to the Duchess.