Meet Modesty Blaise (aka the female James Bond)

Modesty Blaise is glamorous, intelligent, rich and very, very cool. She's been called the female James Bond but she's much more interesting than that.

Modesty started life in 1963 as a strip cartoon in the London Evening Standard. The first of the novels followed three years later.

Daphne Alexander plays Modesty in Radio 4's adaptation of A Taste for Death.

(Images: Modesty Blaise is © 2012 Associated Newspapers/Solo Syndication. Published in the UK by Titan Books.)