How much would you pay for an hour of John Simpson’s company, for Andrew Neil’s ruminations on life and death or Andrew Marr’s witty Westminster anecdotes?

Axegrinder found that all three, and many other well-known journalists, are signed up as after-dinner speakers with Gordon Poole, “the UK’s premier talent agency”.

Marr, former BBC political editor and Start the Week presenter, tops the list with a fee in the £15,000 to £20,000 bracket, while world affairs editor Simpson ‒ “liberator of Kabul” ‒ comes in at £10,000 to £15,000.