The 'uncommonly alarming woman' behind Blunkett affair

LONDON - She was described as "an uncommonly alarming woman" by Max Hastings, former editor of the London Evening Standard.

Her first husband, American investment banker Michael Fortier, said: "Even when she is lying in her grave she'll be thinking if there is anybody more interesting she could have lying next to her."

The background of Kimberly Quinn, whose affair with Home Secretary David Blunkett led to his downfall, could not contrast more with the deprived upbringing of her former lover.

She was, in her own words "a New York debutante who didn't even know how to use a washing machine" and who sometimes went to work in the morning in her ballgown after a night out partying.

Quinn's father, Marvin Solomon, made his money from radiation detection equipment, and she obtained a degree in British political and social history at Vassar University, she went to work as a secretary on Cosmopolitan magazine.

Described as supremely confident and ruthlessly self-advancing, she quickly moved on to Women's Day, where she wrote "household hints and child-rearing tips for women".

Later she edited a trade magazine called Gifts and Decorative Accessories, while continuing to pound the party circuit.

Quinn, 43, who is said to have been attracted to men with status, moved to Britain with her first husband in 1987 when he was transferred to London. He later said she had "a string of affairs" during their marriage, one of whom was with Stephen Quinn, the publisher who later became her husband.

One of Fortier's relatives commented that although the family loved her at first, they realised she was "someone who is nice to your face but hateful behind your back".

"Her idea of a good week would involve two or three cocktail parties a night," Fortier said. "She would want to introduce me to the next politician or movie star and I would just find it all incredibly false and boring."

But in addition to her social life, Quinn also advanced her career.

She went to work at GQ, where she said she was "very annoying", "always in the editor's office with ideas about the magazine".

Then she applied for the job as publisher of the Spectator, which she said she was "determined" to have.

She helped to boost the magazine's circulation and pushed it into profit. Writers liked her and said she was confident, clever and charming.

It was there that she met Blunkett, who is said to have fallen head over heals in love with her. On their first meeting Quinn is said to have told Blunkett that she had always wondered what it would be like to sleep with a blind man.

Quinn's clear attraction to men with status led to her starting an affair with Blunkett, whom she met two months after marrying Quinn.

She was photographed accompanying him to social events and even went on holiday with him to Corfu. Blunkett believes her young son is his.

Even after the affair became public and doubts were cast on the paternity of Quinn's child, her husband, stood by his wife.

The long-suffering Stephen Quinn, 60, is a multimillionaire who had an impoverished Irish childhood. He moved up the ranks of the publishing world from his beginnings as an advertising salesman.

He has been cast in the role of saint during the scandal.

- INDEPENDENT