The three top female contenders for the position of UK poet laureate have ruled themselves out of the running in part because they feel the position is outmoded and useless and in part because it’s just another imposition on the time and energy of hard working women. Not mentioned here is the requirement that lady laureates wear those stupid hats with feathers and pastel suit/dresses with huge black buttons the royal women always seem to have on. I suspect that’s a big, if unspoken, part of the consideration.

And Cope is not alone in her distaste for the high-profile post, which will become available when Motion’s 10 years in the seat come to a close next year.

Award-winning poets Fleur Adcock and Ruth Padel, who have both been tipped for the role, agree that writing for the Queen was probably more trouble than it was worth. Adcock said that quite apart from the extra work it involves, the role continues to command a very meagre salary.

“It’s terribly hard work for very little pay,” she said. “The poet laureate is fine as an institution, as long as I don’t have to do it.”

The fee for taking on the grand title is still just £5,000 a year, although the ancient tradition of a “butt of sack per annum” has been reinstated by Motion. But even 630 bottles of Spanish sherry – no matter how fine – is not enough of an incentive to abandon literary integrity and solitude, said Adcock, whose work has earned her an OBE and the Queen’s Medal for Poetry.