The event took place at Le Café Anglais, London. Here is the text of my short speech to mark the occasion.

Ladies and gentlemen, for me, this launch party has a special significance.

As an initial backer of The Oldie magazine, I remember a young James Pembroke being hired by Richard Ingrams to take charge of the marketing of the new magazine, which was in many ways rather controversial due to its title.

The majority of people would rather not be seen with a copy of a magazine that might reflect the age of the person clutching it.

Undeterred, James took the job to heart and despite the mounting odds against the shaky success of the venture, he excelled in his task where others would have failed.

He had the tenacity and the vision to recognise its potential and the rest of the story is now history.

So you can imagine my delight two decades later when he walked into my office with a manuscript and asked me whether I could be his publisher.

The subject itself intrigued me, and knowing James the way I do I was confident that anything he tries his hand at would be destined for great rewards.

And I was not disappointed.

Growing Up in Restaurants is a very promotable title. It has all the ingredients of a runaway success, the kind of idiosyncratic charm that makes you envy the sort of childhood he had and revel in its many varied escapades.

James believes our attitudes to eating in public reveal more about the development and nature of our society, than how and what we consume in the privacy of our homes. Restaurants, he says, mirror our history and our economic ups and downs: the French aristocracy never ate in public and lost their heads; ours did, and kept theirs.

I am sure James will keep his, for he is endowed with a keen sense of combining what life can best offer with a sharp eye for the possible that hard work can only provide.

He is a man of our age, full of zest, enthusiasm, and a rare quality of defining the indefinable – hence, his secret of success.

His book is as appetising to read as a sumptuous meal in a fine restaurant. Buy as many copies as you can afford, and you will sample a delicacy hard to beat. Please give him the support he deserves.

Ladies and gentlemen, as people in general are not appreciative of long speeches, I have disciplined myself to be brief, so as to ensure your full attention.

We are here to celebrate the launch of Cancer, Love and the Politics of Hope, a book about the life and vision of Dr Philip Salem, who does not need an introduction from me, for his fame as a world-acknowledged oncologist, researcher and professor of cancer medicine precedes him.

A prominent writer and intellectual, this is the first time that a selection of his speeches, interviews and editorials – spanning almost twenty years – have been published together in English. Within its pages, he puts forward a compelling argument for the sovereignty of Lebanon, his country of birth, and calls for an overhaul of the education system – not only in the Lebanon but in the Arab world as a whole.

He reflects on the Lebanese Civil War, offering a penetrating insight and analysis of the subsequent political situation in the region. Dr Salem is a well-known pioneer not only in the field of medicine, but as a patriot whose constant care and surveillance of the affairs of his country of origin stands him in unique stead.

As a clinician and a committed humanitarian, Dr Salem offers the reader his advice and intuition on healthcare, medicine, cancer, life and death. As an Arab-American and a Lebanese citizen who had no choice but to leave his homeland, he describes his own grief in exile when he first arrived in America. It is an emotion that the world’s diasporas everywhere will identify with and gain solace from.

It is especially relevant today in a world fraught with peril and at times seemingly incomprehensible conflict, that individual odysseys of joy, hope and love achieved against a background of horror and incalculable odds are allowed to rise like a phoenix from the ashes; this book is such a voyage. How Philip Salem achieved success in an alien land is a lesson for us all. It is, however, a trait inborn in every Lebanese to seek his destiny beyond the shores of Lebanon and conquer new territories in support of their homeland. They are remarkable people, strewn in every corner of the world seeking opportunities through hard work and an eye for that which others deem unattainable. They also spread their culture and remain true to their ideals and their place of birth. There is much we can learn from them.

Dr Salem is one of those who stands supreme and deserves our esteem. The best way to honour him on this auspicious occasion is for everyone assembled here to purchase more than one copy of his book, so that his vast experience and wisdom imparted in this excellent volume will travel far and wide.

My last important task is to thank our real host, Mr George Zakhem, without whom this launch would not have been possible. He is to be commended for his generosity and great support whenever the opportunity arises. We need more men like him to brighten and inspire our lives, to achieve greater objectives.

Why is the Tory party tearing itself apart? It seems to be divided on a number of important issues, many of which are of its own stupid making.

And, to compound their woes, people close to David Cameron are provoking the rest of the party by labelling grassroots Conservative activists ‘mad, swivel-eyed loons’, who are forcing Tory MPs to take a hardline position against gay marriage and the EU.

Grassroots campaigners are utterly shocked and dismayed by these remarks, and have clearly responded by claiming that such language shows utter disrespect for the party’s membership and confirms their suspicion that David Cameron is out of touch with his own party and the electorate.

Let’s start with gay marriage. Public opinion against the legislation is gaining momentum. Over a hundred Tory MPs are rebelling, and will certainly give the coalition government a hard time before it becomes law – and there are indications that its passage through the House of Lords is doubtful, and is bound to cause a constitutional clash between the two houses after a call for peers to defy the elected chamber because of the way the issue has been handled.

Lord Dear, an independent peer and former West Midlands chief constable, has written to hundreds of members of the Lords arguing that they would be justified in blocking the bill because it had been rushed through in a ‘most undemocratic and shameful way’.

It follows remarks by Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, who said that there was a ‘real sense of anger’ among grassroots Tories about the proposals, which would ‘redefine’ marriage for ‘millions and millions’ of people.

A storm is certainly brewing when the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, is expected to mount a wide-ranging attack this week on the coalition’s family policies, accusing David Cameron of undermining marriage in a way that ‘no intelligent government’ would do.

David Cameron’s stance on the issue of gay marriage is incomprehensible to many people. Why commit hara kiri for a legislation that will play havoc with Christian family values for generations to come. His beliefs must have evaporated since attaining power and he is now courting controversy likely to bring an end to his political ambitions.

He must therefore stop listening to these so-called reformers, whose influence has landed him in no end of trouble. Gay marriage will not win him the next general election. Whoever told him otherwise should be banished from his inner circle and sent somewhere where he could do the least harm.

As for Europe, we must avoid being in a position of total isolation. We must take the middle course and renegotiate some of the issues that give us grave concern.

But getting out of Europe will in my humble view do us more harm than good. We can ill afford as an island to bat on our own in a world where competitiveness is incredibly fierce.

I think David Cameron is aware of the intricacies of the situation, and must resist the right-wingers in his party who clamour for total independence from Europe.

In the meantime, this can wait. Our biggest challenge is the economy and that’s where our ultimate power lies.

We have the will and the expertise to triumph where others have failed. Let’s be bullish and forge ahead without being diverted from our task by ideological nonsense brought about by the misguided concept of political correctness.

And why is it that the more we accumulate the more we want?

I have thought about it for many years, and have not yet found a definite answer.

The positive side of money is that it enables people to live comfortably, educate their children properly and give them the best chance in life, help charities if they are so inclined, and get the best available medical attention – especially when they need it in old age.

It also widens their knowledge by being able to travel and see how the rest of the world lives.

The negative side is that money becomes an obsession with most people, changes their character, often in a detrimental sense – and they become more selfish and start believing that they are not as rich as they would like to be.

That’s a major problem because, to them, infinity in money terms is unwittingly their objective.

The one who has a billion-pound fortune compares himself to one with several billion pounds, and it goes on forever. There is no limit to greed as far as money is concerned. And, believe it or not, a lot of the mega rich are under the illusion that they can take it with them when death knocks at their door.

Perhaps someone who is more learned than the rest of us – and by supposition wiser – will unlock this mystery that baffles me.

To him I throw down the gauntlet, not only for my benefit but also for the benefit of others, who find themselves as confused and perturbed as I am.

Helen Flanagan, born 7th August 1990, is an English actress and model best known to the public for playing the character Rosie Webster in ITV’s Coronation Street since 2000 – when she was just ten years old.

In November 2012 Flanagan featured in the twelfth series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! - finishing in seventh place out of the twelve celebrities that took part.

She was recently voted Britain’s sexiest woman, coming third in FHM‘s search for the world’s one hundred female fantasy figures.

In first place was American actress Mila Kunis, who has become an iconic figure in the US, oozing sex appeal with great intensity, followed in second by singer Rihanna.

Helen, twenty-two, who has recently split from her boyfriend, Manchester City footballer Scott Sinclair – with whom she’s been since 2009 – celebrated with a saucy photo shoot to boost her image as a sex siren whose allure has never been stronger.

She said, ‘I am absolutely thrilled to be voted the sexiest woman in the UK, when there are so many beautiful girls around.’

She deserves to be my woman of the week, on the assumption that her raw sexuality is such as to make men flutter with excitement at any age – and remind those who are past it to fantasise about their days of glory, long gone but still a distant memory worth retaining to keep them under the illusion that perhaps, given the opportunity, they can still overcome the inability to creep to the task.

To conceal the fact I used to go to the barber early every morning who would ensure that my bald patch was cleverly hidden by a ludicrous comb-over and sprinkled with a strong spray to keep it in place – but on a windy day, all his good work would turn rather sour and I would look like a well-dressed chimpanzee whose few strands of hair went into a riot mould.

I still refused to accept the predicament of falling hair and resorted to every trick in the trade to lessen its impact. All this activity became a constant headache that I could have done without, but I did not have the courage to accept the situation with a graceful submission to the whims of nature.

My wife was getting so tired of my obsession with the little remaining strands of hair that I fussed about, and the wasteful cost of my barber’s bill every month, she vowed that one dark night she would herself make sure that I’d wake up one morning to find myself as bald as a coot. In other words, she would have forced the issue by doing the dirty deed while I was asleep. Her threats never materialised and I wish they had.

For it took me many years to see the light and what a remarkable change it made to my life. I embraced baldness like a long lost friend and have enjoyed the reunion ever after.

Now I walk in the rain and I love it. The wind is so refreshing when it brushes the top of my head and I need not worry about my coiffure. I look younger, cleaner and more distinguished and real than ever before. I go to the barber every two weeks to ensure the top of my head is clean shaven and sparkling without any hair intrusion.

I have never been happier and, believe it or not, it is a myth that women are not attracted to bald men. On the contrary, baldness seems to increase their interest, for transparency in this respect appears to give women the kind of sexual frisson with all its hidden rewards that men hanker after.

So wise men take heed. Shave the top of your heads and enjoy a novel experience. You will then embrace baldness sooner than I did and feel the better for it.

So if you are one of those who like to expand your repertoire of foul language in French then GROS MOTS, the new dictionary that tackles the whole subject of rude words, curses and insults, is your perfect pocket companion.

The one-hundred-and-sixty-page glossary, compiled by a French academic, covers everything from merde (‘shit’ in English) to con, which is the most commonly used French swearword. Its literal meaning (‘vagina’) in slang, is roughly used as the equivalent to ‘prat’ and carries a connotation of stupidity, rather than its accurate translation.

‘The word con is so often used, especially in the south of France, that it’s hardly considered bad language any more,’ said the author, Gilles Guilleron. ‘It can be used in a familiar, affectionate way.’

His words make a great deal of sense, for the correlation between vagina (its original meaning) and affection is hardly detached. The intimacy is glaringly obvious. However, there are situations in which the word is best kept in harness, as the former president Nicolas Sarkozy found when he told an angry farmer at an agricultural fair ‘casse-toi alors, pauvre con’ which is the equivalent to saying ‘sod off, you little prat’ – his outburst, captured on camera, was widely criticised.

‘Swearing is one of the liveliest and most fascinating aspects of language,’ said Guilleron, who teaches linguistics at the university of Lorient in Brittany but has no plans to bring out a version with English translations. ‘About eighty per cent of French swearwords are sexual in origin and it’s almost impossible to translate profanities. The best you can do is to give equivalents or explain the meanings.’

He says that the most hurtful insults in French are those ‘of a sexual or physical nature, boudin for example’. The word literally means blood sausage, but as an insult translates as ‘fat lump’.

For diuturnity, French children have taken much joyfulness in shocking their parents by saying ‘caca boudin’. Caca is a childish word meaning ‘poo’ and will usually elicit a chuckle as the ultimate in toilet humour for the under sevens.

Mr Guilleron says that the oldest French swearword is putain, a term for whore that is derived from the Latin for ‘stinky’. Its use has been traced back to the tenth century but it is definitely not approved of in polite society.

In modern diction, it is used in a similar way to ‘fuck’ in English. The word can be abbreviated to pute, and fils de pute which translates as ‘son of a bitch’. Salope can mean bitch but it is also a highly pejorative term for a woman who sleeps around. The masculine form of the word is salaud and is used where English-speakers might say ‘bastard’.

If, on the other hand, you reckon you can get away with it, you might refer to something utterly boring as chiant which means ‘shitty’ – or, an alternative expression, ҫa me fait chier, is a more vulgar equivalent of ‘that pisses me off’.

Mr Guilleron argues that swearing can be a harmless outlet for bad temper, but adds that he would like to see ‘a greater variety used’. ‘We use insults today in almost the same way people did in the nineteenth century.’

In other words, it is clear that we have not progressed since then in finding a variety of new swearwords and insults that will describe more accurately the odd behaviour of people in a modern society whose ruthlessness and greed have exceeded many an expectation.

It is also worth noting that in the stressful age we live in, to let off steam through maledicent words can probably lessen the anger we harbour at a particular moment in time.

So folks, use swearwords when your veins are about to burst but refrain from making a bad habit of it.

Those who are terribly spoilt through inherited wealth and good looks, who spend money recklessly in pampering themselves and indulge their most preposterous whims in every which way, aware that their whole package is an irresistible magnet to broody young men who will give their right arm to share their bed for a night, where a sexual bonanza awaits them.

My next fantasy relates to those who are born without the advantage of wealth but are endowed with the gamine kind of beauty, an abundance of energy, and a contagious naughty disposition – a trait compulsively catching – who roam around confidently with a swagger in their step, as if the whole world is their oyster.

They dismiss and defy convention and live every day fully cognisant of their mortality. They are to me the salt of the earth.

I wonder often whether I have turned into a crank in my old age for having such fantasies, or is it simply a tendency to shock, or being contrary for its own sake, or a mere reflection of what I would have wished my likings to be but have never succeeded.

My mind remains confused, and the more it is in turmoil the more creative energy I seem to trigger off.

In brief, I’d rather be convulsively unsure of what I can achieve and the manner in which I can reach my objective – as I tend to believe that a tortured soul is more likely to produce a work of enduring merit.

That’s a dream we all have, for in our old age it signals the ultimate salvation.

The multi-coloured, highly decorative and slightly ill-fitting garment failed to allow her bottom to undulate to the rhythm of her walk.

I’m afraid, Pippa, you have to do better next time if you want to maintain the crescendo of your rear’s first celebrated outing.

Our constitutional right of free expression is being slowly hacked under one pretext or another in order to blockade those who want to stifle transparency and prevent us from having a voice that resonates enough to be heard without fear of state intervention.

There is already enough legislation to ensure that what we truly believe or think is kept under wraps, as political correctness wrongly demands.

It is therefore welcome news to hear that the cross-party Royal Charter on regulating Britain’s three-hundred-year-old free press has been temporarily withdrawn while alternative plans are being considered.

Government sources revealed that an agreement reached with Labour leader Ed Miliband’s office would not now be presented to the Privy Council, a body that advises the Queen and issues such charters on 15^th May; instead, the council will examine an alternative document put forward by the newspaper and magazine industry, which said it would not sign up to the politicians’ blueprint.

Several Tory ministers are deeply concerned and feel uneasy at both the detail of the cross-party proposals for a new media watchdog and the shambolic way a deal was struck in the early hours of one morning in March.

No proper considerations were given to the implications such a deal would have on the future of the relationship between the press, the government of the day and the public at large, who will be unhappy about the gagging of a traditionally free press.

Many feel that the politicians of the day are risking turning this country into a police state, with draconian measures that would reflect badly on our image abroad.

It is worthy of note that cabinet minister Oliver Letwin was sent into Ed Miliband’s office on that fateful day in March to finalise the details with four representatives of Hacked Off, a group that represents the so-called celebrities and others complaining about press intrusion. No one seems to have taken into account that the law as it stands gave those who suffered intrusion large sums of money in compensation. So why rush into a legislation as controversial as they initially agreed upon – have they forgotten that anger and haste hinder good council?

The coalition government is not only prone to accidents; they are also panic-stricken whenever things don’t go their way. They lack maturity and a sense of a proper perspective – and as for David Cameron, he gives the impression of being privileged and out of touch with ordinary people by surrounding himself with a stable of public school advisers. The poll drubbing of last week should give him a wakeup call.

Let us hope he grows up before the next general election and renounces the old school tie. Otherwise the omens could not be bleaker for the country as a whole.