A YOUNG writer from York has fooled the Poet Laureate into thinking her work was that of Sylvia Plath.

Lynsay Coo, a pupil at The Mount School, was the winner of the young poet of the year competition and got to hear her work read out on Radio Four.

But when Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, heard the piece, called Sea Change, he mistook it for the work of the late Sylvia Plath.

A spokewoman for The Mount said:"For Lyndsay, who has a place to read classics at Pembroke College in Cambridge next year, this is just another in a string of national and international accolades."

She has also won the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings poetry competition 2002, The Foyle Young Poet of the Year, and third prize in the Feile Filochta international poetry competition.

Updated: 09:01 Wednesday, June 25, 2003