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would anyone like to hear my poet laureate conspiracy theory
it's about former poet laureate sir andrew motion, and his claims about how the laureateship affected his own writing.
motion claimed in this bbc news interview that the laureateship had brought on severe writer's block. 'I dried up completely about five years ago [...] I thought all the poetry had gone.' he took on the laureateship in 1999 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm
![motion claimed in this bbc news interview that the laureateship had brought on severe writer's block. 'I dried up completely about five years ago [...] I thought all the poetry had gone.' he took on the laureateship in 1999 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EgBR_m3X0AAzY1n.jpg "motion claimed in this bbc news interview that the laureateship had brought on severe writer's block. 'I dried up completely about five years ago [...] I thought all the poetry had gone.' he took on the laureateship in 1999 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm")
however, looking at the prepublication credits for *Salt Water*, his last pre-laureate collection (1997), it's clear that almost all the poems date from the late 80s / early 90s. so the laureateship itself does not seem to be the cause.
was there anything else unusual in England going on over that time period? historians of the 90s will be aware of one obvious answer - the massive rise to prominence of "Wallace and Gromit".
There is strong evidence that Motion's poetic wellsprings began to falter around 1989, with the release of *Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out*. This continued through the release of *The Wrong Trousers*, *A Close Shave*, and the classic (2000) feature production *Chicken Run*.
In 2005, just before the release of *The Curse of the Were-Rabbit*, there was a fire at the Aardman Animations studio warehouse. A couple of years later, Motion had recovered enough of his mojo to write the poems of(significantly named) *The Cinder Path* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4326624.stm
study this photo again: Motion alongside a gigantic model of his own head. This head is allegedly a bust by Jilly Devon, in possession of the National Portrait Gallery. But it has not been on display to the public since..... 2005
It is my view that Jilly Devon is an alias of wallace & gromit head honcho Nick Park, and that the so-called 'sculpture' is a curséd artefact. I suspect it was destroyed in the 2005 fire; since when, Motion has gone on to release 6 new collections, with a 7th due later this year
there have been no new wallace and gromit films, however, since motion recovered his mojo
if all this is true, and i see no reason why it shouldn't be, nick park truly deserves his reputation as a master of stop motion animation
