PRINCE WILLIAM - WENDY COPE CALLS FOR POET LAUREATE TO BE SCRAPPED

WENDY COPE CALLS FOR POET LAUREATE TO BE SCRAPPED

Writer Wendy Cope has called for the contentious position of Poet Laureate to be abolished.

Cope is one of the favourites to replace Andrew Motion, who is retiring after a decade in the role, but has now claimed the post is crippled by public expectation.

"There is no requirement on the part of the Palace or Whitehall that the Laureate write anything at all," she wrote in the new issue of the Royal Society of Literature Review.

"The press and the public expect it and the only way to get rid of that expectation is to abolish the post."

The 63-year-old said a "Poetry Advocate" role could be created but added: "I believe that the best way for a poet to serve the art is to remain free to get on with writing the poems that he or she wants to write."

Motion has admitted his work has suffered while fulfilling the "thankless" task of composing poems for events of national significance, such as Prince William's 21st birthday or the Queen and Duke and Edinburgh's diamond wedding anniversary.

Favourites to succeed Motion are Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy, both of whom were considered when the role last became available, after the death of former Laureate Ted Hughes.