She is misguided and completely wrong: Cameron weighs into Mantel-Middleton row

20 February 2013

David Cameron today said novelist Hilary Mantel was "completely wrong" to describe the Duchess of Cambridge as a “plastic” princess whose “only point and purpose” is to give birth.

The Prime Minister rode to the defence of Kate as she showed off her "baby bump" for the first time on an official royal visit and revealed she was "nervous" about giving birth.

His intervention during his visit to India came after the double Booker Prize-winning novelist used a lecture to describe Kate as “painfully thin” and a “shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore”.

Mr Cameron said about Ms Mantel: "She writes great books, but what she's said about Kate Middleton is completely misguided and completely wrong."

Giving Kate an incorrect title, Mr Cameron added: "What I've seen of Princess Kate is this is someone who's a fantastic ambassador for Britain."

Kate was at the Action on Addiction refuge in Clapham today to meet women recovering from drug and alcohol problems and low self-esteem.

One recovering addict, Lisa, 34, a mum of three, said: "I asked her if she was nervous about having a child. She said it would be unnatural if she wasn't. It's just human, isn't it?

"I said congratulations and good luck and I hope it all goes okay. She smiled - it was nice."

Natalie, 28, who is expecting a child in July like Kate, said: "She was saying she had been unwell but she was feeling better now."

Kate was wearing a £290 MaxMara grey wrap dress without a coat - which showed off her baby bump. Tanned after a holiday in Mustique with Prince William, she waved to the crowds as she left and was presented with flowers.

The charity's chief executive, Nick Barton, said Kate had been "inspired" by some women's stories. He said of Kate: "She was really poised and comfortable."

Today's engagement was Kate's first full public duty of the year, having only attended the National Portrait Gallery of her portrait last month.

Kate first visited the charity last year before being made its patron. This was her fifth visit to its centres that are located across the UK.

Today her supporters took to Twitter in their thousands to lambast Ms Mantel, the 60-year-old author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies.

Former Conservative health minister Edwina Currie tweeted: “It seems unfair for Hilary Mantel … to have a go at Kate. Duchess of Cambridge doesn’t turn herself into ‘shop window mannequin’, we do. She’s a smart St Andrews graduate.

“I’ve met and listened to Hilary Mantel several times, exceptional brain, funny and clever, not usually snide in public. Departure for her.”

Hugo Vickers, who has written a biography of the Queen Mother, said: “It is a great pity that Hilary Mantel feels the need to do this. She has done pretty well with her books, she doesn’t need to stoop to the level of criticising Kate Middleton.

“She is the first royal bride to have a university degree and is a highly sophisticated young lady. She is not a plastic doll, she is quite feisty and she is doing a very good job.”

Another Twitter user wrote: “Cheap nasty shot Hilary Mantel, that won’t sell your books or win you friends.”

Mr Barton said earlier: “Having met the duchess several times I find her to be engaging, natural and genuinely interested in the subject.

“You can tell a lot about someone from the questions they ask and she asks really good questions, the questions of someone who wants to learn. She is also an intelligent woman.”

Nevertheless, there were others who defended Mantel. Cambridge historian and television presenter Mary Beard told the Evening Standard: “Mantel was not pulling any punches to be sure, but I thought it was not a diatribe, but an analysis of the construction of the female royal body, which had some sharp words for those — and this is honestly almost all of us — who idolise that body, then pull it to pieces.”