Hoopoe hoopoe horrah

This week a new Children's Laureate was announced.

Author, illustrator and cartoonist Chris Riddell has taken over from Malorie Blackman, making him the ninth Children's Laureate. But did you know that the medal he received is based on an item in the Pembroke archive?

It is traditional for those who take on the role of UK Poet Laureate to be given something to drink. Reportedly, the original salary that came with the role was £200 per year plus a 'butt' of wine.

In 1970s the custom was revived when John Betjeman was given the equivalent of 600 bottles of sherry. Ever since, the Poet Laureate has received a barrel of sherry, which they sign as a mark of respect.

The Laureate’s Sherry is bottled using a specially-designed label specific to each poet. The current Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s commissioned an artist to design her label, but one Laureate decided to design his own.

Ted Hughes (1951) named his sherry 'Laureate's Choice' and sketched a design for the label showing an exotic-looking bird known as a hoopoe. Former Laureate Andrew Motion was given a bottle by Hughes and says: 'I have the bottle in front of me now with the label Ted drew. It’s actually for a Spanish Sherry – Oloroso Seco Sherry – with the bottle number 436 written in his hand on the label too. It’s got a hoopoe bird sitting in the middle of the wreath with a moon & star and his signature.'

One of the boxes that Hughes' original shipment arrived in is now stored in the archives at Pembroke. The wreath that he included in his motif was selected to be used for the Children's Laureate medal when the role was created in 1999. The silver medal that Chris Riddell was presented with earlier this week shows the wreath surrounding an image of a book.

You might also be interested to know that Hughes was not the only Pembroke man to be offered the role of Laureate - Thomas Gray turned it down in 1757.