As the debate raged on, Kate Midleton took it all in her stride.

Kate Middleton, aka Britain's Duchess of Cambridge, confessed today that she is nervous about giving birth as she came under scathing attack from novelist Hilary Mantel.

Hilary Mantel said she was left “weak at the knees” after becoming the first British writer to win the Man Booker Prize for Fiction twice after her novel Bring up the Bodies was named the best book of the year.

An author who was turned down by traditional publishers has been pitted against previous winner Hilary Mantel for this year’s Man Booker Prize.

Bookies’ favourite Hilary Mantel scooped the Man Booker Prize for Fiction tonight for her “demanding” novel about Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell.