A Butt of Sack

There is something rather wonderful about Carol Ann Duffy finally being appointed Poet Laureate, after she was apparently rejected last time round by a Tony Blair, nervous of the impact of her sexuality on a blushing Middle England. The anachronistic royal appointment famously carries remuneration in the form of a £5,000+ per year stipend (which Duffy has asked to be donated to the Poetry Society to endow a new prize) and a butt of sack. Interviewed on Radio 4 this morning, Duffy said that she had discovered that outgoing Laureate Andrew Motion had yet to receive his quota of sherry so she had asked to get hers up front. A butt = 600 bottles.

It may have taken 341 years to get here, but raise a glass with and to her.

If, for any reason, you don't know her work - start with Rapture, her astonishing collection of love sonnets.