If ever any proof was needed that the Monaco Celebrity Lunch networking concept has come of age, it was there for all to see on June 23rd. Not only was the event a complete sell-out, with a controversial and entertaining guest speaker, but it offered an opportunity for the UK’s Leukaemia Research fund to make important new contacts at a high level.

Organiser Kevin Marsh of Azur Productions had a waiting list of people eager to meet the charismatic Alastair Campbell

and find out what this combative high profile figure was really like. The former communications director to Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is still advising the Labour Party behind the scenes, did not disappoint the packed Salon Bellevue at the Café de Paris.

Disarmingly he began by introducing himself as “the person the press used to believe was the most evil person in

Britain, a position I did as a job share with Peter Mandelson, and now Tony Blair is doing on his own.” What came across was a man who is passionate about everything he does, is by his own admission very “black and white,” and who has a great sense of humour