Former MI5 chief turned spy novelist prefers the Bond girls over villains

Stella Rimington, the former head of the MI5 between 1992 and 1996 and who inspired Judi Dench's portrayal of M, has said she would rather be a Bond girl than a Bond villain.

Rimington attended a literary festival in Dartington, England, last week to promote her series of spu novels starring heorine Liz Carlyle, when she was asked which villain from the 007 series she would most like to be.

"I would rather not be a villain -- I would rather be Octopussy," Rimington said.

On the subject of her books, she said: "I wanted to try to rescue spy stories from the idea of one man up against a baddie. James Bond goes to see M and she shows him a very thin file with a photograph on the front and says, 'Off you go and kill that man'. In fact, it's not like that at all."

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