Kate puts her baby bump on parade as Prime Minister mauls best-selling author Hilary Mantel over 'plastic princess made for breeding' jibe

The Duchess of Cambridge yesterday admitted she was nervous about giving birth, as the Prime Minister stepped in to defend her against novelist Hilary Mantel’s ‘plastic princess’ attack.
Kate, who is more than four months pregnant, revealed her baby bump for the first time at a public engagement when she visited a treatment centre run by the charity Action on Addiction.
She spoke of her worries about the birth as she chatted to a group of women recovering from drink and drug addictions at Hope House in Clapham, South-West London.
Scroll down for video and Hilary Mantel's speech

 

Flower girl: Kate stopped to chat to two youngsters who proudly presented her with flowers after her visit to Hope House today
Wearing a patterned wrap dress by upmarket High Street label MaxMara, the 31-year-old duchess seemed proud of her gently swelling stomach, holding it protectively.
Kate, who is patron of the charity, was asked about her pregnancy by recovering alcoholic, Lisa, as she sat at a table with women taking part in an art therapy class. The 34-year-old mother of three said: ‘I asked her if she was nervous about having a child and she said it would be unnatural if she wasn’t. It’s just human, isn’t it?’

 

Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said Mantel’s comments were unfair.
She said that although Diana had at first seemed ‘bland’, later ‘we learned about all the troubles of her marriage and her personality began to shine through. Kate might yet come into her own.’
She added that Kate’s duties meant she ‘can’t do anything that might reveal (her) personality.
‘They have to be nice to everyone. They are probably stupefyingly bored but they can’t appear to be having anything other than a nice time.’
Kate returned to work today with the merest hint of a baby bump.
Looked tanned after her recent holiday in Mustique, Kate braved a chill morning in London wearing only a grey patterned wrap dress by upmarket High Street range Max Mara.

Natalie, 28, a former drug addict and alcoholic, told the duchess about her own pregnancy.
‘I told her I’m expecting a baby at about the same time as her [in July]. She was saying she had been unwell but she was feeling better now.’ 
It was Kate’s first official engagement since before Christmas, when she spent time in hospital with a severe form of morning sickness.

 

 

 

The Duchess of Cambridge made two youngsters happy when she accepted their bouquet of flowers after she visited a charity she supports

 

It was always bound to attract huge public interest, but even the duchess could not have predicted just how much the spotlight would have been upon her.

Hours earlier the Mail reported comments made by double Booker prize-winner Miss Mantel in a lecture at the British Museum in which she described the future Queen as a ‘machine-made’ princess, ‘designed by a committee’.

But where the author described her as a personality-free ‘shop window mannequin’ with a ‘plastic smile’, thousands of Britons leapt to her defence saying the Duchess is a warm, intelligent woman.
Mantel, 60, compared Kate unfavourably to both Anne Boleyn – one of her historical heroines – and to Princess Diana, insisting both had more personality.
She said Kate had gone from being a ‘jointed doll on which certain rags are hung’ to a woman whose ‘only point and purpose’ was to give birth.
Mantel said Kate ‘appeared to have been designed by a committee and built by craftsmen, with a perfect plastic smile and the spindles of her limbs hand-turned and gloss-varnished’.
Now David Cameron, while on a trip to India, has waded into the row to support the pregnant Duchess.
He said that Hilary Martel is 'a great writer' but described her comments on Kate as 'a hurtful thing to say', according to reports.
He described the comments about the Duchess of Cambridge as 'completely misguided and completely wrong'.
'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.
'Having her as Patron of the charity draws attention to the cause of addiction as a whole, which is not always an easy subject.
'She is doing an enormous amount to reduce the stigma of addiction and increase understanding of it.'
Presenter Lauren Laverne came out in defence of the Duchess, Tweeting: 'I mean, I know she won that Booker and everything but if you can't say anything nice... #Mantel.
And businessman Chris Smith wrote: '#Hilary #Mantel seems to be looking for a bit of cheap publicity by taking pop shots at those people the public love! #cheapstunt'.
Eleanor Bennett wrote: 'That Hilary Mantel doesn't need to be such a boot towards Kate Middleton' while another user, David Ward, wrote: 'With friends like Hilary Mantel, who needs enemies'.

 

 

 

Pregnanr: Residents 'fell in love' with the Duchess during her visit to Hope House residential centre as she showed off her baby bump for the first time

 

The Duchess made no attempt to disguise her gently swelling stomach, standing with her hands clasped under her bump

The Prime Minister told the BBC: 'What I've seen of Princess Kate at public events, at the Olympics and elsewhere is this is someone who's bright, who's engaging, who's a fantastic ambassador for Britain.
'We should be proud of that, rather than make these rather misguided remarks.'
The head of a charity supported by the Duchess of Cambridge has hit back at Hilary Mantel’s extraordinary attack on her, saying she is an 'intelligent' woman who is proving to  be a huge asset to the causes she backs.
Nick Barton, chief executive of Action on Addiction, said the Booker prize-winning author was entirely wrong to characterise the Duchess as a clothes horse whose only purpose was to give birth.
Speaking ahead of a visit by the Duchess to Hope House, an addiction recovery centre for women in Clapham, south London, Mr Barton said: 'I can only speak of what I know, and having met the Duchess several times I find her to be engaging, natural and genuinely interested in the subject.

 

Kate visits the kitchens at Hope House residential centre. The Duchess, who is patron of the centre, spent over an hour talking to people at the Home

 

The Duchess of Cambridge visits the art therapy group as she visits the kitchens at Hope House

Glowing: The Duchess of Cambridge showed off her healthy complexion today after recovering from severe morning sickness

 

All smiles! The Duchess brushed off the furore to enjoy her visit meeting the residents and staff of the charity she supports

 

The Duchess visited the kitchen and chatted to chefs, before attending an art therapy class where she listened to residents' stories
Twitter user Shahid Miah ‏wrote: '#HilaryMantel getting publicity 4 comments on Duchess of Cambridge. Yes, Duchess has 2 fake smile but everything else is surely genuine, no?'
The London Review of Books attempted to clarify the comments made by Mantel about the Duchess of Cambridge, saying the author was actually criticising the media and their portrayal of the Royal family. 
What Mantel really wrote is about how the media make the royals suffer.
In her lecture's summary she said: 'I'm asking us to back off and not be brutes.'
The Duchess, who is almost halfway through her pregnancy, carried out her first official engagement of the year this morning when she visited Hope House, a 22-bed residential facility for women from all over the country to get over addictions to drugs and alcohol.
Action on Addiction is one of five charities of which the Duchess is patron, and she spent her time there speaking to women who are in recovery and congratulating those who are on the road back to sobriety.
Her visit came after the lecture, where Mantel said the Duchess was quite unlike Anne Boleyn, who was ‘a power player, a clever and determined woman.’

 

 

The Duchess of Cambridge today visited one of her charities, Action on Addiction, as Hilary Mantel faced a huge backlash for her comments. Kate's pregnancy bump could just be seen as she entered the charity's HQ

 

Warm reception: After being slated as 'plastic' by Hilary Mantel, Kate received huge cheers when she arrived at Hope House in South London today

 

Mantel contrasted her appearance to Prince William’s mother, Diana, ‘whose human awkwardness and emotional incontinence showed in her every gesture’.
Mantel, the author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, the acclaimed novels which detail the failure of Henry VIII’s wives to produce an heir, used a lecture to examine the prospects for the future queen consort.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Mantel's comments were 'misguided'

Mantel said that when she first saw Kate Middleton, she struck her as ‘a shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore.’
Prince William’s wife-to-be was as ‘painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character’.
She added: ‘Presumably Kate was designed to breed in some manners.
‘She looks like a nicely brought up young lady, with “please” and “thank you” part of her vocabulary.’
Mantel spoke of Kate’s appearance in her first official portrait since marrying William, painted by Paul Emsley, which was unveiled last month.
She said: ‘Her eyes are dead and she wears the strained smile of a woman who really wants to tell the painter to bugger off.’
Mantel went on to say that female Royals were ‘at the most basic... breeding stock, collections of organs.’
St James’s Palace last week criticised a magazine for printing pictures of Kate’s baby bump taken during a break on the Caribbean island of Mustique.
And they were furious last year when pictures of her topless on holiday were printed in Italy – saying ‘a red line had been crossed.’
But Mantel suggested Kate could have few complaints about private pictures of her being taken on holiday – observing: ‘The royal body exists to be looked at.’
‘Some people find them endearing; some pity them for their precarious situation; everybody stares at them, and however airy the enclosure they inhabit, it’s still a cage.’ 
Mantel gave the London Review of Books lecture ‘Undressing Anne Boleyn’ at the British Museum on the February 4. The full version of her speech is to be published in the latest edition of the London Review of Books, out on February 21.

The Duchess is visiting Hope House in Clapham, South West London, which is run by Action on Addiction, a charity of which she is patron.
She was greeted by a small crowd of wellwishers, waving and smiling back, before telling waiting staff how delighted she was to be visiting.
'At least the sun is out,' she said as she readjusted her dress.

A HISTORY OF HILARY

Writer Hilary Mantel was born in Glossop, Derbyshire in 1952.

She is the first woman to receive the Man Booker Price twice. She bagged the first of the awards in 2009 for Wolf Hall, part one of her trilogy about Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell.

The second installment of the trilogy, Bring Up The Bodies won both the Booker Prize and the Costa Book Of The Year Award last year.

Ms Mantel’s comments on the Duchess of Cambridge’s appearance comes shortly after she spoke about having body issues of her own.

Ms Mantel went from a size ten to a size 20 in nine months after she was diagnosed with severe endometrosis at the age of 27.

The treatment, which included surgery removing her womb leaving her infertile, caused her to gain four stone.

The 60-year-old author said she sometimes dream of being thin again.

As she chatted to clients and staff, however, Kate made no attempt to disguise her gently swelling stomach, standing with her hands clasped under her bump.
As she chatted to women in an art therapy class, she told one of them: 'Well done for getting sober.'
The Duchess confessed to other women that she is nervous about giving birth as she met the women recovering from drink and drug addictions.
The Duchess spent time with an arts therapy group where the centre's clients had completed paintings charting their battle with substance abuse.
A client called Lisa said: 'I did ask her if she was nervous (about giving birth).
'She said it would be unnatural if she wasn't - she's human like us.'
The mother-of-three, who turned to drink during a violent marriage which lasted 18 years, said: 'I said "Congratulations and good luck, I hope it all goes OK".'
Kate also chatted to Natalie, who has a two-year-old daughter and is due to give birth to a second child in July - the same month as the Duchess who is more than four months pregnant.
The 28-year-old said the talk also turned to babies when they chatted: 'We're due about the same time. She's been unwell and feeling better now and I felt pretty much the same the first time.'

The Duchess chose yesterday to give an insight into the causes that she will support, hailing the start of a project which will see one of her charities receive a huge financial boost from a philanthropic organisation.
She described her delight at Action On Addiction – which she backs as patron – becoming the beneficiary of the fundraising efforts of 100 Women in Hedge Funds during 2013.
‘Those affected by addiction are in desperate need of the highest level of care and treatment; Action On Addiction delivers this brilliantly,’ she wrote in a letter to mark the launch of the fundraising project.
‘Whether direct or indirect, the impact of addiction can be devastating.’

 

 

Official bodies: Hilary Mantel said the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge should not complain about invasion of privacy when pictures are taken of them on private holidays as a 'royal body exists to be looked at'

During the visit, Kate was taken to the centre's kitchen and watched as a lunch of chicken and bacon pasta with salad was prepared by some of the clients.
Some of the ingredients for the meal - packs of chicken and bacon and packets of brown pasta - were laid out on a table and Kate asked one of the women who was chopping mushrooms: 'Do you like the menus and do you enjoy the cooking side?'

She got the reply: 'I find it very therapeutic.'

 

Kate also made the chefs laugh by asking: 'Can people get away with being fussy or not - if they don't like mushrooms?'

One of the staff told her the women have a low glycaemic index diet to control blood sugar levels to ensure they do not have highs and lows dictated by their meals

'As painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character’

- Hilary Mantel's first impression of Kate

A reception for supporters and senior staff from Action on Addiction was held at Hope House and Kate shared a joke with the son of one of the charity's donators.
Katie Woodward, 45, whose father established a charitable trust which has donated to Action on Addiction, brought her son Hugo, nine, and daughter Serena, seven, to meet Kate.
Hugo was celebrating his birthday today and the Duchess asked him: 'Are you doing anything nice today?'
The guests erupted in laughter as Hugo paused before answering, and finally said: 'I'm going to a restaurant.'
Nick Barton, Action on Addiction's chief executive, praised the Duchess after the visit: 'She was wonderful with the clients. They fell in love with her. They opened up to her.
'She's such an easy person that they were talking to her in a very comfortable way, and I think surprised themselves at how easy that she made it for them.
'She seemed in good spirits, in good health, and very comfortable.'
Mantel, 60, studied law at LSE and Sheffield University, before becoming a novelist.
Acclaimed author Hilary Mantel today declined to discuss her provocative remarks.
A man who answered the intercom the 60-year-old's beautiful seaside apartment in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, said the writer would not be commenting on her remarks.
She is author of more than a dozen books, including Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, the first two parts of a trilogy about King Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell, both of which won the Man Booker Prize.