Good news from GCHQ this week, as it revealed the number of women recruits to the intelligence agencies has risen following a push to address gender imbalance in the industry.

(Bond producers take note – maybe the time IS right for a female 007? Personally, I don’t care who the next Bond is, as long as he/she is a bit more cheerful than the old misery-guts Daniel Craig has turned him into.)

MI5, MI6 and GCHQ advertised for the first time on parenting website Mumsnet in a bid to attract ‘middle-aged, mid-career’ women and I’m sure Mumsnet users will be delighted by that description.

One woman responded drily that middle-aged women would make brilliant spies, as they tend to be invisible anyway, but the good news is that it seems to have worked. Well, at least it seems to have been a step in the right direction.

In March 2015, just 37 per cent of intelligence agency staff were women and a paltry 19% held senior positions.

By introducing groundbreaking measures like flexible working and allowing women returning from maternity leave to take up their old posts again (who knew?) things have improved.

MI5 has recently been placed in the Times Top 50 employers for women and has increased its number of new female employees by 5% to 46% of new recruits and applications from women for GCHQ rose to 40%.

This is exciting news. It has made me wonder whether I should consider a change of career. I could be a spy. I read all the Famous Five books hundreds of times when I was wee, so I know how to take rubbings of tyre prints and how to get keys out of locked doors when I’m trapped inside with only a piece of paper to hand.

My children reckon I have the skills required to be a spy too. “You’re like a ninja mum sometimes, because you always know when we are doing something we shouldn’t,” frowns the eight-year-old. “And you could probably kill someone with the death stare,” adds the 12-year-old, adding more seriously: “Actually, your job as a journalist would be a good cover because you could say you were following a story but you would actually be on a mission.”

His brother pipes up: “AND you are good at knowing when people are fibbing. And you are very clever.”

They pause and look at each other. “ARE you actually a spy?” says the wee one, in wonder.

I couldn’t possibly comment.....