Reception 7.30pm, dinner 8:30pm in Keble College Hall. Price of £150 includes reception, dinner, wines, and a copy of Maureen Lipman’s It’s a Jungle Out There: A Lipman-Agerie. Dress code: black tie. Dinner hosted by Christopher Davies, chief executive of international at HSBC Bank plc

Join actress, writer and comedian Maureen Lipman for a dinner in the magnificent Victorian Gothic dining hall of Keble College prepared by renowned Californian chef Jeremiah Tower.

Lipman is one of our best-loved actresses and is renowned for her thetare and television roles, her witty stand-up routines, and for her writing. In her most recent book, It’s a Jungle Out There: A Lipman-Agerie, Lipman turns her satirical mind to animal/human character mash-ups such as Brad Pitbull, Angie-lemur Jolie, Johnny Deppard, Jake Gorillanhall, Lu-seal Ball, Andy Warthog, Joan Crow-ford, Vanessie Redgrave, Harry Otter, Squirrelly Clinton and Giraffa Nadal. The idea came after Lipman did a doodle of a steer in a dinner jacket and named it Oscar Wildebeest. Lipman is an Olivier-winning actress who has played many leading theatrical, television and film roles during a long and successful career. She recently starred in the West End productions of Harvey and My Mother Never Said I Should and presented the six-part television series Treasures of Britain. Lipman writes regularly for Standpoint and Spectator Health and is author of a number of bestselling books.

Tower trained as an architect but, finding himself short of money, he took a job at the then unknown Chez Panisse restaurant in California, where he worked with the chef/founder Alice Waters. Within a year he was equal partners with the owners of the restaurant and in charge of the kitchen. He went on to open the San Francisco restaurant Stars – among the top-grossing restaurants in the US for a decade – and to become one of the most influential figures in the American food scene. He has written several books, including Start the Fire: How I Began a Food Revolution in America.

Sponsored by HSBC.