Top woman poet quits
The first female Oxford Professor of Poetry resigned yesterday over her involvement in an alleged smear campaign against a rival.
Ruth Padel, 63, a great-great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, insisted she had “acted in good faith” and had done “nothing intentional” to lead Derek Walcott to withdraw from the election.
Oxford University sources said a new election would be held.
Walcott, who had been the leading candidate for the job regarded as one of the most influential in UK poetry behind that of the laureateship, withdrew after an anonymous letter campaign against him.
Professor Padel said yesterday: “I genuinely believe I did nothing intentional that led to Derek Walcott’s withdrawal. I did not engage in a smear campaign against him, but, as a result of student concern, I naively – and with hindsight unwisely – passed on to two journalists…information already in the public domain.”
Padel’s election followed the resignation of Walcott, 79, after anonymous letters went to more than 100 Oxford professors in what he called a “low and degrading” campaign.
They were said to have detailed an allegation of sexual harassment against the St Lucia-born poet by an ex-student in 1982.
