Duffy is first female Poet Laureate

12 April 2012

Carol Ann Duffy is the new Poet Laureate - the first female laureate in the post's 341-year history.

Duffy succeeds Andrew Motion, who has held the post since 1999.

She had been widely expected to take over the role and confirmed she had accepted the job during an interview on BBC Radio 4.

Duffy said: "I'm really thrilled to have it properly announced on Woman's Hour and here in Manchester."

Duffy told the programme she had thought "long and hard" before saying she would take the job. I look on it as a recognition of the great woman poets we have writing now," she said. "I've decided to accept it for that reason."

The 53-year-old is the latest in a line of poets which began with John Dryden and has included such great names as William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson and John Betjeman.

Other names being circulated for the £5,000-a-year job included Simon Armitage, Roger McGough and Benjamin Zephaniah.

The laureate is officially appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Government and until Tony Blair established a 10-year tenure in 1999, was a job for life.

Part of the laureate's remit is to write poems to commemorate major state occasions and events involving the Royal Family - a task which Motion said he found extremely difficult.

Before the new appointment was made, the Government sought advice on a replacement from academics, poetry specialists, as well as the public.

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