AS the only woman to win the coveted Perrier Comedy Award Jenny clair could be forgiven for being rather smug.

Since winning in 1995 with her unique brand of shocking humour, the 40-something self-proclaimed 'middle-aged bimbo' has gone from strength to strength. She has since added West-end actress and novelist to her list of credentials but Jenny maintains a refreshingly honest attitude to her success.

"The Perrier Award was so long ago and it was all a bit political at the time because it was really just about time a woman won. But I love the fact that I am still the only one and revel in it in a rather selfish and narcissistic way!"

And despite her involvement in the BBC New Comedy Awards Jenny admits she is not altogether happy about encouraging newcomers to her world of work. She said: "I pretend to be enthusiastic but every new comedian is competition and every new woman is taking the food out of my mouth and the shoes off my feet!"

Jenny's tongue in cheek remark is followed up rather swiftly with genuine praise for comediennes and women in general: "I think it is great women do not have to push and fight and be furious and hairy legged any more. And I don't think that stand-up is the be all and end all of getting on in comedy any more."

"There are women working in comedy who were smart enough to spare themselves the stand-up circuit - there are other ways in." Jenny cites the women behind Channel 4's Smack the Pony, the BBC's Three Non-blondes and The Office's Lucy Davis as just a few examples.

In between starring in West End shows The Vagina Monologues and Mum's the Word, Jenny has been working on her second novel and is rushing to meet the deadline for the end of January. Her first book, Camberwell Beauty, was published in 2000 but Jenny is the first to admit her disappointment in failing to set the literary world alight.

"I was really hoping for a Nobel Prize for literature! Suddenly I was in a much bigger pond - there are a lot of women my age who write quite good books and you tend to get lost in that world." But after suffering a bad bout of writer's block Jenny, writer of numerous Radio 4 plays, is determined to try again.

"The new book is about horrible people and really how you can mess yourself up in your own head - it's not all happy ever-after."

Jenny has in the past admitted that most of her work has a tendency to be autobiographical and this latest offering follows suit: "I think I am everyone in all my books because I have got a rather schizophrenic personality. The only thing I really steal from people's lives is their houses!"

One of the motivations for writing the first book was, Jenny claimed, the need to break from the gruelling demands of stand-up and the upkeep of her catty on-stage persona. With this in mind it seems rather odd she has decided to make a, albeit welcome, return to the stage, touring with her show that made its debut in Edinburgh in 2001.

"I got bored and lonely of my own company - I quite like being on my own for a while but I have got cabin fever now and I like to get out. I go on stage and sit down for half of the show and it is more or less to keep my hand in."

Her fans will be reassured to know that Jenny is working on new material for this year's Edinburgh Comedy Festival - but has age mellowed this particular comedienne, once described as the 'most outrageous woman in Britain'?

"I think mellowed is the wrong word." she said pointedly, "At my age you can't stand there for an hour swearing and talking about bottoms - but I am still just as furious." You have been warned.

Jenny Eclair's Middle Aged Bimbo tour reaches Worcester's Huntingdon Hall on Saturday, January 24. For more information contact the box office on 01905 611427.