A blur of colours can be seen through Bristol woman Charlotte Cooper's fingers, as she twists and turns a Rubik's Cube.

Seconds later, the jumble of yellows, reds, whites, blues, purples and greens that had been on the sides of the cube when she began have been transformed into uniform panels of colour.

It looks so easy. But then 23-year-old Charlotte is the fastest woman in the UK when it comes to solving Rubik's Cube puzzles, and the third fastest in Europe.

"It's something anyone can learn how to do," she insists, as I sit gaping at the sight of her effortlessly twisting a jumble of colours into panels that all are the same colour.

"It's not beyond anybody, although it does take a considerable amount of dedication and ability to remember the sequences to learn how to solve it."

Charlotte's fastest official solve in a Rubik's speedcubing competition is 17.59 seconds, which she achieved at the UK Masters in Swindon this July. However, she has achieved even faster times than that.

"At home it's not uncommon for me to get solves of under 15 seconds," she says.

Charlotte's speciality is pyramid puzzles, and earlier this month she came third in the pyramid section of the Dutch Open speedcubing championships.

"My best official time in a competition was 5.83 at the Dutch Open 2008," she says.

"That's really very slow now for me. I regularly get between three and four seconds after practising."

Charlotte also holds a national record for solving the lesser-known Rubik's Clock puzzle and can even solve Rubik's puzzles when blindfolded.

How on earth can she solve a puzzle if she can't see it?

"You look at the puzzle and try to memorise as many colours as possible before you begin," explains Charlotte, a student at the University of the West of England.

Charlotte's flat in central Bristol – where she lives with her partner Chris, a physics teacher – contains an array of Rubik puzzles, plus trophies and medals that she has won in the many competitions around the world she has taken part in since she started speedcubing about two years ago.

"It's not just about the glory," she says. "I've travelled to all sorts of places thanks to speedcubing competitions, and have met people who have become some of my closest friends."

Charlotte heads to Manchester in a fortnight to compete in a one-day UK Open competition. She will then be hosting a competition that she has organised in Bristol on November 21 to 22, at the Trinity Arts Centre and has attracted entries from all over Europe.

Later this year, Charlotte will attend a competition in Sweden and next year she hopes to compete in the US Nationals, as well as in events in France, Holland, Spain, Germany and Belgium.

The most difficult challenge she has to contend with is finding the money to compete in them.

"For competitions abroad I book flights as early as possible and I save money by staying with friends. I return the favour when they come to the UK," she says.

"I'm trying to find a sponsor or a donation to help cover the costs of the event at Trinity Arts Centre, as we're non-profit and any deficit will have to be covered by me."

So how did Charlotte become involved in speedcubing?

"I always had puzzles around me as a child. I was into fiddly things like yoyos," she recalls. "When I was little my mother took me to Hamley's toy store in London and said I could have anything within reason, and what I wanted was a Rubik's Cube.

"I think a relative taught me how to do one side, but I never managed to complete the whole cube. I would produce something with the same colour down one side, but the rest would be a jumbled mess.

"Then during my first university summer holidays I a friend and I learned how to solve the Rubik's Cube for something to do.

"We were looking on the internet for tips and saw footage of people going crazy at a competition and decided we wanted to get involved."

Only eight per cent of those involved in the competitive speedcubing circuit are women. Charlotte is also unlike most competitors in that she does not have a strong scientific or mathematical background.

"The vast majority of keen cubers are into maths and science, whereas I started studying for a degree in German and Spanish at Bristol University, and then transferred to UWE and I'm now doing a degree in English Literature," she says.

"There is also quite a lot of overlap between chess and physics and Rubik's Cube. I've never been particularly interested in chess, although I do like science."