When I was a little girl my sisters and I had a 50-something babysitter called Jean who looked exactly like her yappy Yorkshire terrier. Luckily after three games of obligatory dominos she was a soft touch and let us stay up to watch Bond films which with a start time of 9pm finished way past my bedtime.

I remembered being enraptured by the glamour, romance and adventure of the ever charming and effervescent James Bond who romanced and more often than not seduced all the girls. I can still see them now through my ten year old eyes: all perfect make up, lustrous hair with an endless array of dazzling clothes. These women appeared to a gangly, slightly awkward, freckled pre-teen to be the epitome of beauty. So I decided when I grew up I wanted to live just like a Bond girl: I would travel to exotic places, seduce men with a bat of my eyelashes, escape danger and save the world. What could be better?

But as I grew older (and when MI5 had still not recruited me) the dream of a fantastical life as an international spy slowly drifted away. Much to my disappointment I realised that being a secret agent probably never actually involved skiing in big furry mink hats, or wearing slinky dresses to casinos, throwing dice for Russian men with eye patches all the while dropping poison into their champagne.

So I resigned myself to a far less exciting life working in London Advertising Agency. It was fun and stimulating, but where was the glamour? the drama? The adventure? Then just over a year ago I was at the Cabaret night 'Flash Monkey' at Café de Paris and a new chapter in my 22 years of life began. People were dressed in wild costumes, military uniform, candy girls, suspenders and pants on show and everyone with a smile on their face. The atmosphere was electric. I was dressed as a 1940s sailor girl with a little paper sailor hat pinned to my head being twirled around the dance floor by a gentleman in top hat and tails. I saw a dancer tease her gloves off finger by finger, as she slowly swung her hips to the live band playing ….. I was transfixed, completely seduced by the magic, fantasy and beauty of it all. At last this posh Geordie girl had found where she belonged.

Later on sipping my ‘King Kong cocktail’ I was approached by the photographer, he flashed away and I coyly drew my painted red lips into a smile and give a naval salute.

'I bet you get this all the time, but has anyone ever told you that you look like Diana Rigg from 'The Avengers''?

I was immediately flattered, ‘Yes actually, I have always had a bit of a things about the 60s, catsuits, teased hair and Bond girls’

‘Have you ever modelled before? I would love to take some pictures of you? Here’s my card’.