Mrs Blair is often at her husband's side at official engagements

Cherie Blair has been accused of attempting to "cash in" on her husband's position by giving a series of lectures on life inside the Number 10 "goldfish bowl".

It is not the first time Mrs Blair's entrepreneurial activities have landed her in hot water with the media.

In 2002, her decision to buy two flats with the help of convicted fraudster Peter Foster ended with a tearful confession and Mrs Blair telling reporters she was "not superwoman".

This latest row is unlikely to reach such a pitch of emotion.

Mrs Blair claims those who have attacked her for exploiting her husband's official engagements to promote her lucrative sideline in public speaking are guilty of sexism.

Political ambitions

Sir Dennis Thatcher had "outside interests" and nobody batted an eyelid, she says.

And the fact Tony Blair was in Washington for talks with George Bush at the same time Mrs Blair was given her latest lecture was a coincidental diary clash, she adds.

But critics - including Labour former minister Clare Short - insist she is abusing her position and using her husband's job to boost her own already considerable earnings as a QC.

Dennis Thatcher's outside business interests were not directly related to his wife's job, they point out. He never sought to make money out of lectures or books on life inside Number 10 and kept a famously low profile at official engagements.

Mrs Blair has also attempted to stay out of politics since her husband came to power in 1997.

But, as a leading human rights lawyer who entertained political ambitions of her own, she was never going to be the sort of prime ministerial spouse who melted quietly into the background.

Born in 1954, Cherie Booth was brought up in a working class, Roman Catholic family in Bury, Lancashire.

Hard-working

Her father, the actor Tony Booth, who later became famous for his role in the BBC comedy Til Death Us Do Part, walked out when she was two.

He had children with a number of partners. In 2002, Mrs Blair was said to have been "delighted" to discover that she had a half sister in Australia.

A hard-working and conscientious student, she earned a first in her law degree at the London School of Economics and came top of her year in the bar exams.

Cherie met Tony while they were both training to be barristers.

She was an active supporter of the Labour Party and it has been said Tony stepped up his involvement with the party to impress her.

They married in 1980.

Mrs Blair fought and lost the no-hope seat of Thanet North in Kent at the 1983 general election.

Privacy

In the same year her husband won his safe seat in Sedgefield, County Durham, and began the long climb to government.

Since Labour's landslide victory in 1997, Mrs Blair has campaigned on a range of non-controversial issues such as breast cancer and the rights of women prisoners.

She has, for the most part, remained out of the headlines for her political views - widely regarded to be to the left of her husband.

A rare slip came in 2002 when she was forced to apologise for comments about Palestinian suicide bombers at a charity event.

She has also fiercely protected the privacy of her four children, managing to juggle family life with her role as a leading lawyer and part-time judge.

She had her fourth child, Leo, at the age of 45, and suffered a miscarriage two years later.

Family finances

Only occasionally has the strain of juggling family and work shown - such as the episode when she was fined for fare dodging after jumping on a train to Luton, where she was due to sit as a magistrate.

Her fondness for New Age spirituality and her friendship with former glamour model and lifestyle guru Carole Caplin, who introduced the Blairs to Peter Foster, has also brought its share of unfavourable press attention.

But it is the Blair family finances - and Mrs Blair's attempts to bring in extra income with property deals, book contracts and lecture tours - that have attracted the most headlines in recent months.

In 1997, the Blairs sold their family home in Islington for �665,000, taking themselves off the London property ladder. The house is now thought to be worth three times that amount.

The family is also thought to have lost money on the ill-fated Bristol flats. Earlier this year, they bought a �3.65m house in London but had difficulty finding a tenant.

Their finances will have been boosted by Mrs Blair's latest round of extra-curricular activities, which has seen her net �30,000 for one lecture in Washington and �100,000 for a speaking tour of Australia.

Perhaps that's why she seems determined to ride out any criticism that she is trading on the family name to make a fast buck.