Because I wanted her to be a female wish-fulfilment figure, I wanted her to be like James Bond, with better clothes and fewer gadgets. There was no female hero in the same vein as Leslie Charteris’ Simon Templar, the Saint. In fact, as the Saint books were published in the same period of the 1920s, I wanted to make her Simon Templar’s younger, more level-headed sister. All I really did was take a male hero of the time and allow her to be female. No one thinks it odd that James Bond has blondes and no regrets. I only ever thought I would have two books published so I tried to pack everything I wanted to say about female heroes into them. The modern women detectives are afflicted with self-doubt, neglect their diets, worry about exercise, think they may be growing fat (as if fat was a disfigurement), and are generally burdened with low self-esteem and guilt. I wanted a character without guilt, with boundless self-esteem—as a role model, perhaps. She was no challenge to invent. All I really felt that I actually invented was the name and the background.