So long Cheryl Cole's stick-thin frame, today's women want... curves like Nigella Lawson's:

Her generous curves topped the list of figures that women would most like to have themselves.

In fact two in three yearn for an hourglass 'in and out' figure, a survey of 2,000 women found.

Miss Lawson topped the poll when the women were asked whose figure they found most inspiring. She was followed by the womanly Dame Helen Mirren (whose photo last year in a red bikini was regarded as the epitome of mature glamour), the elegant Dame Judi Dench and Kate Winslet, a curvy English rose.