Which Nordic Noir character would you like to be?

I’ve got a bit of a girl crush on many of the female characters in Nordic Noir fiction, TV and film.

It all started with Lisbet Salander, the feisty female sleuth in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. Who wouldn’t want to battle misogyny on the streets of Stockholm? I might not have been able to do all the techie stuff, nor am I very good in physical combat, but boy, would I, like Ms Salander, love to spend my time fighting for the cause of feminism!

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander

My more recent fictional heroines are from TV: The jumper-wearing Sarah Lund from The Killing, who sacrifices her personal life for the good cause of crime fighting, and the socially awkward Swedish detective, Saga Noren, from the Danish/Swedish TV series, The Bridge. Her brain is as big as a house, she wears tight leather pants, drives a vintage Saab and asks a man to move into her flat because, ‘I like having sex with him.’ That a girl!

Sofie Gråbol as Sarah Lund

Sofia Herlin as Saga Noren

But, my all time hero, and someone who I secretly would really like to morph into, is Birgitte Nyborg, the head-strong Prime Minister in another Danish TV series, Borgen. This might have something to do with the fact that The Englishman has been totally in love with her since Series One, but for me, being in charge of a whole country is also incredibly sexy. I’ve always been interested in Politics, I studied the subject at uni, and even once upon a time dreamed of being an MP in the UK.

Alas, my career has taken a totally different direction and I cannot really imagine that I would ever be able to carry such a heavy responsibility. I would, however, be quite at home telling several good-looking, powerful men around me what to do…