Imtiaz Dharker, right, is expected to be appointed poet laureate next month. Her daughter Ayesha, left, is an actress

A poet who describes herself as a “Pakistani Scottish Calvinist Muslim” is expected to become the new poet laureate, succeeding Carol Ann Duffy whose 10-year term ends next month.

Imtiaz Dharker, 65, who was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and grew up in Glasgow, will be the first Asian poet laureate in the 350-year-old post’s history — and only the second woman. When Dharker appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2015, she told Kirsty Young: “I am a Pakistani Scottish Calvinist Muslim, adopted by India and married into Wales . . . Don’t try to put me in a box . . . I’m a cultural mongrel.”

Duffy will be pleased with the choice. “Reading her, one feels that were there to be a world laureate,