UNTIL last Tuesday Nicola Horlick had it all. To the amazement of the British media and public, here was a woman in charge of an £18 billion pension business, at the head of a 35-strong team, who put her five children to bed at night and did some charity work as well. Not forgetting that she was only 35 and earning £1 million a year. No wonder the City dubbed her Superwoman.

Yet even Mrs Horlick could not escape the sexism which seems to come with the territory, as many of her underlings called her Miss Piggy behind her back.

The news that Mrs Horlick had been suspended - on full pay - from bankers Morgan Grenfell, accused of attempting to persuade at least 10 colleagues to join her and move to a rival bank, certainly shocked the City. Yesterday Morgan Grenfell was trumpeting her resignation. She was talking about trumped-up charges.

In an internal memo to staff chairman Robert Smith confirmed her resignation, saying: "We are standing by our actions. We are completely satisfied that we have acted properly throughout ... No individual is bigger than the interests or superior performance that has been achieved for clients over the past years as a result of a concerted team effort."

In true Superwoman style, she had stormed into her old office yesterday morning to meet her accusers. "Don't you dare lay a finger on me. Touch me and I call the police," she told the security guards as she marched up the stairs. "Not the lift," she advised her solicitor. "They will be able to block them off."

Although Mrs Horlick had been told to meet Morgan Grenfell's management at 8 a.m., to face what she described as a "kangaroo court", she caught her enemies off guard by arriving two hours later. Unfortunately this tactic misfired, as they had already left the building. Undeterred, Mrs Horlick immediately booked a flight to Frankfurt, seeking a showdown at the company's headquarters.

"I believe in the truth and I insist that people listen to me. I will be heard," she declared. Clearly furious at her treatment, she says she will now take legal action for unfair dismissal.

MRS Horlick believes the accusations stem from being spotted having a Christmas lunch with a friend from a rival firm.

"They put two and two together and got five. That's how all this started. . . I feel like I have been stabbed in the back for no reason. That's why I am so upset. There are no skeletons in my cupboard. I've never done anything wrong," she explained.

Although poaching is a fact of life in the business world, the accepted procedure is to do it only when you have left the company. According to Morgan Grenfell, Mrs Horlick overstepped the bounds of decency by allegedly recruiting before she had even signed for ABN Amro, a rival company.

In fact Mrs Horlick was only taken on by Morgan Grenfell after they had poached two of her staff from Mercury Asset Management, who then said they wouldn't leave without "their boss Nicola". So she was poached, too.

Her husband Tim (36), an investment banker who earns £250,000 a year, is being sued by his former employers, Kleinwort Benson, over alleged breaches of his contract. Dubbed the Golden Couple of the business world, they certainly enjoy the good life. As well as a £1 million Georgian house in Kensington, central London, along with the obligatory nanny and housekeeper, they also have a country cottage.

To ensure that she has quality time with her children Mrs Horlick adheres to a strict nine-to-five working day. In a recent interview she explained her solution to juggling work and trying to be a good mother.

"I am usually home by 6.30 p.m. and have until 8 p.m. every night with the children; and every weekend we all go down to our cottage in Hampshire. It helps that Tim is willing to play his part and even change the odd nappy now and again.

Before her problems at Morgan Grenfell, the only other hitch in her seemingly perfect life occurred seven years ago, when her eldest child Georgina, then aged two was diagnosed as having leukaemia.

"It was the first time in my life time that I had not felt in control and it did me a lot of good. I'd had it very easy up until then - I had come from a well-off family, had a good education. Got married to the man I wanted and had every opportunity in my career.

"Then I realised all that mattered to me was my daughter getting well again," she recalled.

IN THE naive belief that they "could spend their way out of the problem" the Horlicks took Georgina to an exclusive private hospital - and were stunned when staff informed them after a few days there was nothing more they could do.

"We couldn't accept it. We read everything we could on the disease and talked to as many people as we could and discovered that the real expertise is in the NHS," she told friends. Georgina was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital and her condition slowly began to improve. Now aged eight, she is well enough to attend school but "is by no means out of the woods yet."

Described as a dedicated campaigner for the Leukaemia Research Fund, Mrs Horlick has so far raised £150,000 through her charity balls.

Few of Mrs Horlick's male colleagues knew about her daughter's illness - they were apparently still complaining that she had taken all of her maternity leave and had continued to breast-feed her baby, in a private room, when she had returned to work.

But those who did compared her fight for her daughter's life to the same kind of commitment she showed when securing a multi-million-pound deal, which probably is one of the best illustrations of the City's values.

Mrs Horlick attributes her success in the City to the "soppy love letters" she received as the only girl at a boys' prep school in Hoylake, Wirral. The boys' declarations of undying love as they vied for her attention were so silly that she pledged never to be intimidated by men.

At Cheltenham Ladies College, she hated the "snobby girls", and transferred to Birkenhead High School, where she became their first girl to go to Oxford. After graduating from Balliol College with a degree in law, she joined Mercury Asset Management and soon became the youngest person appointed to the board.

"She is highly intelligent, incredibly motivated and well-organised but does not come across as ruthlessly ambitious. She is not a back-stabber, she speaks her mind and you always know where you stand with her," said one former colleague.

As Mrs Horlick set off the tackle the Germans and demand her reinstatement or £1 million in compensation, she began to laugh: "I think they [the managers at Morgan Grenfell] are pretty wet. Did you see their faces when I went in? It was fantastic."