Dahl: 'I had enormous t**s and a***'

Sophie Dahl has said that she was an unlikely candidate for a model when she first started the job because of her unconventional figure for the industry.

The former Yves Saint Laurent perfume model made the comments in her upcoming cookbook Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights.

Dahl revealed that she was spotted by Vogue contributing editor Isabella Blow who first asked if she wanted to become a model.

She said: "Bar my height, I couldn't have looked less like a model. I had enormous t*ts, an even bigger arse and a perfectly round face with plump, smiling cheeks.

"The only thing I could have possibly shared with a model was my twisted predilection for chain smoking."

Dahl said that she learned to eat in moderation by trial and error and that her "unsure baby fat...slunk slowly away one year".

She added: "Please don't be swayed or thwarted by some glossy fictional food diary that a stick-thin starlet swears she lives by.

"Starving is not sexy. It is bleeding gums, acrid breath, brittle bones, osteoporosis, infertility and complication. It saps and withers."