Motion warns future laureates about the job

Andrew Motion ends his ten years as Poet Laureate in May, but many of his potential successors, among them Simon Armitage and Wendy Cope, could well be frightend off by Motion's account of the job in today's Guardian.

"Be warned," he tells those interesting in submitting a CV, "If you interpret the job as I have done - that being poet laureate means not just writing poems but trying to champion poetry - you will find there is an unimaginable difference between leading a relatively private life and the public life suddenly required of you. It is not just about having to get up early to appear on the Today programme. It is everything that comes with having your life picked over."

Motion, who has already complained that he never received any feedback for his rhymes from the Queen, who is technically his employer, adds archly: "The royal poems I have written I think belong in a slightly different place from my normal stream of work, which isn't to say I disown them. They were particular responses to particular moments."

He may be referring to the poem he wrote to commemorate Prince William's 21st birthday, which began: "Better stand back/ Here's an age attack/ But the second in line/ Is dealing with it fine." Of this sort of doggerel, he says: "They have a tendency to excite news editors to ring people up until they can find someone to say how much they dislike them - which is far from easy to deal with." ·