After Dinner Speakers: Max Clifford, Ruby Turner, Terry Waite

Max Clifford is the UK's best known publicist and a consummate media manipulator. Name an individual involved in a high profile news story in recent years and more often than not, he is somewhere there in the background. Even Jimi Hendrix was an early client. And he has admitted that the woman who has made allegations of sexual assault against former Tory MP Neil Hamilton and his wife, Christine, came to him for advice. In the last few years alone he has helped expose Jeffrey Archer and liased with the media over the story of Siamese twins Jodie and Mary. And while he is a Labour supporter and an admirer of Tony Blair, this did not stop him tipping off the Mirror that Cherie was pregnant. He cannot stand hypocrisy in public life; his speaking talent reflects his down to earth style.