Is Oxford voting for a celebrity or a poet?

People who wouldn’t dream of having anything so trashy as Grazia on the coffee table, who claim not to be the slightest bit interested in the state of Brad and Angelina’s marriage, are often gripped by the seamy, rowdy lives of our poets and writers. They’re a source of glamour and gossip for more high-minded readers. Little wonder then that the gay and confessional poet Carol Ann Duffy said that she thought ‘long and hard’ about stepping on to this crowded stage of literary Brangelinas. Little wonder also that in a deeply shaming incident for Oxford University, the Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, 79, this week withdrew from the elections to become its Professor of Poetry, which take place on Saturday, after being the victim of what he termed ‘a low and degrading attempt at character assassination’.

The nomination of Walcott — who in his native St Lucia is so adored that there’s even a square was named after him — was the idea of his friend, Professor Hermione Lee, who labelled him the ‘Professor of cool’.