Sarah Brown says Naomi Campbell is her heroine

Being married to a man with a notoriously quick temper has clearly had an effect on the prime minister's wife, Sarah Brown. Asked to nominate her "21st century heroine" for the magazine Harper's Bazaar, she chose the supermodel Naomi Campbell in recognition of her work for women's and children's charities.

"The Naomi Campbell I had heard about was beautiful, successful, always late, a bit frightening, even a bit out of control," Sarah Brown writes in the magazine. "[The] Naomi Campbell I met [was] certainly beautiful, but also sincere, direct, and impatient in a good way."

The phrase "a bit out of control" presumably refers to the notorious incident in 2007 when the model was ordered by a New York court to do community service and attend an anger management course after she was accused of flinging a mobile phone at her maid, catching the women on the head.

According to reports earlier this year from inside Brown's bunker at Number 10, throwing mobile phones is the least of the problems staff have encountered on a bad day. The PM has also been accused of throwing pens and staplers and, on one occasion, of pushing a printer off a desk.

No wonder Sarah Brown was so understanding. "The Naomi Campbell I know has proven herself a loyal friend and a woman of her word," writes Brown of the work the model has put in for her White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, which aims to reduce the number of women in the developing world who die during pregnancy or childbirth.

"She is a fearless challenger of the established position if she sees the need for change, whether in her call for greater diversity in the media, or the demand for greater focus in international development on women's health and rights. She is generous, authentic and hardworking." ·