Celebrity Lunch
23rd November 2012
Café de Paris, Monaco

She won a scholarship to Oxford to study chemistry, but discovered quickly that she was not to be the next Nobel Prize winner, so switched to politics. A year at the LSE convinced her she was a Tory and a spell with accountants Arthur Andersen drove her out of the City and into teaching.

By 1975 she was in Birmingham and elected to the city council; in 1983 she joined the ranks of Margaret Thatcher’s Tories in the House of Commons, and became one of her most recognisable ministers. She resigned when she revealed the scandal of food poisoning caused by eggs, and hasn’t looked back since.

Since then she has written 10 books including best-selling blockbuster novels A Parliamentary Affair and A Woman’s Place; had her own radio programme on BBC Radio Five for nearly 6 years; has appeared on many prime time TV shows, including Come Dine With Me (twice) and Hell’s Kitchen, and won Celebrity Mastermind 2004.

She’s a regular commentator on today’s political scene and lives in Derbyshire with her second husband John Jones and a well-bred but dim chocolate Labrador called George.

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Celebrity Lunch
25th November 2011
Café de Paris, Monaco

But Stewart’s leadership was based on pride and passion, and when England lost another Ashes series and flopped in the 1999 World Cup, he was harshly axed. He hit top form again during the 2000 one-day triangular series, and when he scorched a century in his 100th Test, the sheer length of the standing ovation he received suggested that Stewart had become a national institution. Against India at Lord’s in 2002, he crowned his achievements by becoming England’s most-capped test cricketer, overtaking Graham Gooch’s record of 118 matches.

When Stewart was in full flow, there were few who could compete with him. He will go down as one of England’s greatest ever all-rounders and he has been missed in the team since he retired.

He is now a regular cricket analyst on BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Sports, and still remains close to the Surrey and England cricket teams as their ambassador, working with England’s sponsor, Vodafone.

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Celebrity Lunch
7th October 2011
Café de Paris, Monaco

His reports filmed with the Nairobi-based cameraman, Mohamed Amin alerted the world to the extent of the tragedy. They were shown worldwide, to an audience of billions. They led directly to a massive international relief effort itself valued in billions of dollars, which was estimated to have saved well over a million lives.

He was named “Television Journalist of the Year” by the Royal Television Society in 1984 and won a second RTS award that year for foreign reporting. He has won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for factual broadcasting. He has been awarded the “Golden Nymph” at the Monte Carlo Film and Television Festival Europe’s premier prize for television journalism and the United States “National Headliner” and “George Polk” awards, two of the three most important honours there for broadcasters.

In 1988 he was the third recipient of the James Cameron Memorial award, given for “work as a journalist that combined moral vision and professional integrity” in his coverage of the township uprising and state of emergency in South Africa.

He has reported for BBC TV News since 1973. He was a network reporter from 1973-1976, industrial correspondent (1976/7), Energy Correspondent (1977/9), Scotland Correspondent (1979/80), Special Correspondent (1980/2), Southern Africa Correspondent (1983/7).

He presented BBC Television’s flagship news programme, The Ten O’clock News and he also presented the peak-time BBC 1 programme about emergencies, 999. He is chairman of the BBC’s discussion programme on moral and ethical issues The Moral Maze (BBC Radio 4), and, also for Radio 4, presented The Choice, a single interview programme about individual dilemmas. In addition he chairs, presents, reports for, and contributes to, a number of other television and radio programmes, mostly for the BBC.

These have included major events such as the Royal Wedding of Prince Edward, the Eclipse and the BBC’s Millennium night coverage, and also BBC1 docudrama Wren: The Man Who Built Britain and major BBC1 series Tobacco Wars and Soul of Britain and the three-part series The Hand of God in 2003. In 2005 he presented What Are Men For? as part of the Don’t Get Me Started series on Channel Five. Michael Buerk is also the narrater of the popular Sky1 series, Pinneapple Dance Studios.

Michael’s autobiography, The Road Taken, was published by Hutchinson in September 2004.

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Celebrity Lunch
14th October 2011
Oxo Tower, London

He is currently publisher (chief executive and editor-in-chief) of The Press Holdings Media Group, owners of The Spectator, The Business and Apollo, the arts magazine.

Andrew has a strong track record in broadcast media: he currently anchors four editions of the Daily Politics on BBC2 every week, the award-winning This Week on BBC1 every Thursday and Straight Talk with Andrew Neil on BBC News 24.

During his career Andrew has been UK editor of The Economist, editor of The Sunday Times, executive chairman of Sky Television, executive editor of Fox Television News of America, a well-known anchorman on British television and a regular political/economic commentator on all the American networks and news channels.

A Monaco Celebrity Lunch in London

The venue for this Celebrity Lunch is the top floor and terraces of the Oxo Tower on London’s trendy South Bank, with spectacular views over the river and St Paul’s cathedral.

Prices

GOLD: Branded corporate table of 10, to include branded centre piece table name card and company logo in souvenir menu – 2,500 euros plus VAT

SILVER: Bookings for individuals and smaller parties – 235 euros plus VAT

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Celebrity Lunch
25th March 2011
Café de Paris, Monaco

Known as an acute and amusing observer of political life, the most telling description of Falconer comes from Alastair Campbell’s diaries: “Charlie is a mess, covered in ink but hilariously funny with a fierce intelligence. He went through the Shadow Cabinet and had us all falling off chairs – but he also gave TB a real grilling.”

Charles Falconer was a minister in Tony Blair’s government for all of its ten year life, Lord Chancellor for the last four years. He was instrumental in leading and delivering change in a wide range of areas within the UK government, and represented and negotiated for the UK at the highest level throughout that period. He was involved in all the critical issues which faced the government from 1998 until the 2001 election– for example relations with Europe, the Euro, the intervention in Kosovo, the petrol crisis, and employment law changes.

In 2001, after the general election, he became Housing, Planning and Regeneration Minister and in 2002 he became Criminal Justice Minister.

In 2003 he became Lord Chancellor, with the remit of abolishing the office. In conjunction with the then Lord Chief Justice he worked out a detailed new relationship between the judiciary and the executive, which was embodied in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. His reforms included the creation, for the first time of a Supreme Court, for the UK, the creation of a commission to appoint judges, making a full-time independent judge the Head of the Judiciary for England and Wales, and introducing an elected Speaker for the House of Lords.

In 2007 he became the first Secretary of State for Justice, bringing together courts prisons and justice policy for the first time. He was responsible for leading a department with a budget over £10billion, and over 22,000 employees.

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Celebrity Lunch
17th June 2011
Café de Paris, Monaco

Bill Beaumont CBE will always be remembered as a great leader and captain. His triumphs in 1980 will never be forgotten when he led England to their first Grand Slam since 1957 and was captain of the British Lions.

Bill’s International career started in 1975 against Ireland and in all he played for England 34 times. His first involvement with the British Lions was in 1977 when he was flown out to New Zealand as a replacement.

He played three games but the greatest honour of his career was when he was invited to captain the British Lions in South Africa in 1980.

Sadly a head injury, while playing for Lancashire in the 1982 County Championship final, prematurely ended his career. However he is just as well known these days for his television and media work – Bill was the longest serving team captain on BBC’s ‘A Question of Sport’ with over 300 appearances and has been a studio analyst and expert summariser for the BBC and SKY Sports.

Bill has gone to be the Managing Director of his family textile business (founded in 1888 and been in the family for four generations), and was awarded the Queen’s Export Award in 1996. Bill was also awarded the OBE in 1982.

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