Criticism of a pristine princess fell on deaf ears Controversy ... author Hilary Mantel. It is not often that sophisticated literary discourse is the topic of banner headlines on the front page of one of Britain's hell-raising tabloids. And it is still less common for a prime minister to weigh in with his own stiffly reproving critique, turning the affair into dinner table talk across the country. So it was on Tuesday, when the Daily Mail, a tribune for right-wing causes, set out after Hilary Mantel, one of Britain's most celebrated historical novelists, for what the tabloid characterised as "an astonishing and venomous attack" on the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton - cynosure of the tabloids, and regular front-page copy - in an article published in the current issue of The London Review of Books. Writing less about who the 31-year-old duchess may actually be than about the idealised, objectified way Mantel sees her as having been cast for her starring role in the spectacle of royal life - a distinction mostly lost in the furore that followed the Daily Mail's headline splash - Mantel described her, among other things, as a "machine-made" princess and "a shop window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore." Kate Middleton. Comparing her with two royal consorts of other times - Marie Antoinette and Diana, Princess of Wales - Mantel said the duchess, unlike them, was no "gliding, smiling disaster," but a character seamlessly suited to the role thrust upon her. The duchess, she said, "seems to have been selected for her role of princess because she was irreproachable: as painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of emergence of character." Read in their full context, a 5800-word essay that Mantel delivered as a lecture at the British Museum two weeks ago, the remarks took on a quality of sympathy, albeit somewhat condescending, rather than the contempt Mantel's critics saw for the duchess, who is expecting her first child in July. Those words invited a populist response, which they earned from the Prime Minister, David Cameron, among others. "Well, I think she writes great books," Cameron told reporters during a visit to India. But I think what she said about Kate Middleton is completely misguided, and completely wrong. What I've seen of Princess Kate, on public events and the Olympics and elsewhere, is that this is someone who is bright, who's engaging, who is a fantastic ambassador for Great Britain, and we should be proud of that rather than these rather misguided remarks. The mass-market tabloid controversy was a long way from Mantel's usual milieu of literary festivals and book signings. She achieved an improbable double, winning the coveted Man Booker Prize twice in the past four years, most recently last year, for the first two books of a planned trilogy about intrigue in the court of Henry VIII. Cameron's criticism was joined by a chorus of similar comments. Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, told the BBC, "These are pretty offensive remarks." He added, "Kate Middleton is doing a brilliant job in a difficult role." But others supported Mantel, who drew a wave of endorsements on Twitter. Caitlin Moran, a commentator for The Times in London, described Mantel's comments as "sane and beautiful," while Jemima Khan, an author and socialite, defended the author with a post saying, "Interesting on how The Mail misread Mantel on Middleton." As for the duchess, the fuss seemed only to augment her popularity. As front pages were blanketed on Tuesday with stories on Mantel's remarks, the duchess appeared in her role as patron at an addiction centre in London, drawing cheers from a waiting crowd. Royal spokesmen, seemingly content to let the public approbation speak for itself, offered no comment.