Cherie Blair compares Tony to Churchill

Cherie Blair (pictured) has never knowingly avoided saying and doing stupid things, but her latest remark – that her husband Tony is comparable to Sir Winston Churchill, the wartime leader, Nobel prize-winner, soldier and historian – will attract understandable mirth. She makes the claim in an interview in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Talking of her husband's three terms as Prime Minister, she says: "He was fantastic. I'm sure history will judge him very well. I think he'll be up there with Churchill."

When asked for her assessment of her own performance as a Prime Minister's wife she appeared to have a sudden reality check. "Less good. Because the PR wasn't very good - that's for sure," she admitted. "Just looking at the press cuttings, you couldn't say that it was a triumph, could you!"

The interview has been used to promote the US release of her toe-curling memoir, Speaking For Myself. She said that her husband been a little taken aback by some of the book's contents, which included the revelation that she had become pregnant with their fourth son Leo while visiting the Queen at Blamoral and forgetting her "contraceptive equipment".

"I'm sure that in political books people don't talk about their contraception, but this is not a political book," she said. "This was a book about a woman's life, about my journey and how it reflects the journey of so many other women."

Asked what her mistakes were while living in Downing Street, she replied: "The list is potentially endless. But in the end, it's pretty trivial. You try and do your best, but you're only human."

And in a remark that appeared to be aimed at Gordon Brown's wife, she talked of her "deep sense of relief" that she didn't have to stand next to Carla Bruni, the former model and wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, when she came to Britain on a state visit, as Sarah Brown had to do. "Because that isn't really a fair comparison, is it? Since I'm not a fashion model, there's a limit to how nice I can make myself. I don't regard myself as an ugly person, but I don't think of myself as someone who would choose to be a model. I'm somebody who might be, I'd like to think, a role model for people who want to become lawyers."