Novelist attacks Duchess as 'shop-window mannequin'

An award-winning novelist has attacked the Duchess of Cambridge for being, what she describes, as a "shop-window mannequin" with no personality, whose only purpose is to breed.

During a lecture at the British Museum, double Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel criticised Kate as appearing to have been "gloss-varnished" with a perfect plastic smile.

Mantel also suggested that Kate was selected for her role of princess because she posed no risk of showing any character.

Kate seems to have been selected for her role of princess because she was irreproachable: as painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character.

She appears precision-made, machine-made, so different from Diana whose human awkwardness and emotional incontinence showed in her every gesture.

These days she is a mother-to-be, and draped in another set of threadbare attributions.

Once she gets over being sick, the press will find that she is radiant.

They will find that this young woman's life until now was nothing, her only point and purpose being to give birth.

To listen to the full podcast of Hilary Mantel's speech, click here