Andrew Motion was appointed as Poet Laureate in May 1999. 

'I would like to see poets associated with all sorts of surprising places, everywhere from zoos to football clubs ' Andrew Motion

photo credit: Adrian Mealing - enlargements: gallery

Since becoming the UK's official royal poet, Motion has followed the primary function of his role by marking special state events with a poem. He has also been hard at work trying to give his role more general public relevance, writing verse to mark events and causes of more personal public concern, such as the Paddington rail disaster and the charity Childline.

'I see myself as a town crier, can-opener and flag-waver for poetry as well as wanting to write poems about various events that seem suitable to me'

He has also embarked on a series of visits to schools and colleges to spread this enthusiasm for poetry to the younger generation. The government has, he says, been "very receptive" to his wish to see poetry protected and promoted in the National Curriculum.

"The idea of a living poet coming to the school and talking about their work was absolutely unimaginable when I was growing up. It wasn't quite as bad as saying that the only good poets were dead poets but it was nearly like that."

However, by highlighting the contexts in which poetry could and does already influence their lives - such as TV and pop music - Motion has found his young audiences generally receptive. 

He also admits that only a handful of children know what the Poet Laureate is or does. 

The confusion, he observes, also extends to adults. It's a situation which he hopes to rectify in the course of his work. 

"The Laureate is a mysterious position. It's very ancient and very honourable but it hasn't always been clear what a person in a such a position might do," he says. 

	photo credit: Adrian Mealing  - enlargements: gallery

"My predecessor Ted Hughes wrote some extraordinary poems but, although he did a great deal for poetry behind the scenes, he wasn't someone who had a very developed interest in appearing in public in the way that I am prepared to do. 

"Part of my interpretation of the role is to demystify it and prove that no matter how sophisticated the language, poetry latches on to very primitive human pleasures of reflection and association - which we forget as we grow older at our peril."

In addition to making regular visits to schools and Festivals, he has also co-founded The Poetry Archive, a web-based collection of poets reading their work which will have a significant value for general readers as well as teachers and students (it includes a dedicated 'education zone'). www.poetryarchive.org 

His acclaimed series for Radio 4 - The Landscapes of Poetry - was broadcast last year.

'The best poems are those which speak to us about the important things in our lives in a way that we never forget. Any heavier definition than that begins to collapse under its own weight and exclude many forms of poetry. But we live in a very diverse culture and the great opportunity that poetry has now is to make sure that all its various voices have an equal and proper space given to them. In this way, they can link up with the lives from which they arose in the first place.

Andrew Motion's work has received the Arvon/Observer Prize, the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize. In 1994 his biography of Philip Larkin was awarded the Whitbread Prize for Biography, and shortlisted for the NCR Award. The Lamberts won the Somerset Maugham Award.