London: Benazir Bhutto's British university friends remembered her today as a "fiery and fun" figure who cut a glamorous swathe through the dreaming spires of Oxford during the 1970s.

Assassinated in a suicide attack yesterday, Bhutto was a well-known figure around the historic university after she became the first Asian woman to be elected president of the Oxford Union debating society, attracting worldwide media attention.

She reportedly held some of the best parties in Oxford, drove a yellow MG sportscar and described her university years, featuring typical student pastimes like punting on the River Cherwell, as the best of her life.

Bhutto studied politics, philosophy and economics at Lady Margaret Hall from 1973 to 1976 and later became an honorary fellow of the college, which was founded in 1878 and pioneered women's education at Oxford. "She was very charismatic," Victoria Schofield, an author and long-time friend of Bhutto who met her at Oxford, told AFP.

"We were a drab lot of 1970s students, messy and not very well-off...and there was this exotic woman who drove a sportscar when we mostly rode bicycles and had lots of friends."

Schofield, who later wrote a book about Bhutto's father, added: "She enjoyed the union but she liked socialising as well, she liked parties and wearing nice dresses." Alan Duncan, business spokesman for the main opposition Conservative Party, knew Bhutto for 31 years and was her campaign manager when she became Oxford Union president in 1976.

Source : PTI