Marion Mcgivern celebrates Minnie the Minx at sixty-five

Marion Mcgivern braves an encounter with the UK’S favourite minx on her sixty-fifth birthday.

We know you as Minnie, but your full name is Hermione Makepeace. Has anyone ever called you Hermione, and what happened next?

My dad went through a phase of calling me that when I was about six, but every time he did I let Chester (my cat) loose in his underwear drawer. It was February, and a month of walking to work in shredded unmentionables made him go cool on the idea.

Do you swap ideas with your cousin Dennis?

I suppose you could say that . . . if what you mean by swap is that he copies all of mine! Seriously, what people don’t realise about me is that I’m very open-minded. I love having a frank exchange of opinion with my cousin about all sorts of things. It’s just that – in the end – it seems I’m always right.

How do Dennis’s dog, Gnasher, and your cat, Chester, get along?

Gnasher’s awesome, but dogs are a bit needy, don’t you think? Chester is much more independent. He really knows his own mind, and I love that. He’s also exactly the right size for a hotwater bottle. Handy!

Lots of “Friend” readers will have grown up with you and know you best from earlier days in the “Beano”. How do you think you’ve changed since you started out?

I don’t think I’ve changed, but the world around me definitely has. Even so, there are a lot of things that still need to be fixed, so “minxing” is just as important as it’s ever been.

It’s said that you were a great influence on 1960s and 70s feminists. Who do you think learned most from you?

Fe-minx-ists, you mean? I don’t know. I don’t want anyone to decide what anybody else’s potential is, or what they should be aiming for. Minxing is about deciding what you want for yourself. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963, and that was only ten years after I invented minxing. Maybe someone told her the sky was the limit and she thought they lacked imagination . . .

Who do you look up to?

My mum. She has a job she loves and she’s really good at it. She’s in HR. I mean, personally I’d rather eat bees than do that myself, but everybody’s got a dream, right? She made hers come true.

What’s your proudest achievement so far?

They made a statue of me. I’ve got a catapult and everything. Dennis doesn’t have a statue, although he does have a TV show (watch this space).

How does it feel to have a statue of you in Dundee?

Well, it’s a great honour, and Dundee’s a nice place, but I think they should have put me on top of that column in London. You know, Nelson’s Column. He’s had it long enough. Move over, Horatio!

Do you think you’ll ever grow out of minxing?

I doubt it. Minxing is a way of life, and as long as people try to make me behave the way they think I ought to, I’ll keep on minxing!

If you could give one piece of advice to girls – of all ages – today, what would it be?

If I’m going to do something, I do it my way (the minx way). They should do it their way.