Who's in and who's out

Our annual magazine The 1000: London's Most Influential People, published earlier this month, was a compelling record of the key power-brokers and agenda-setters in 2008. But influence continues to shift quickly in the capital. Every week Gideon Spanier looks at who's in and who's out.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

LITERARY LIFE
TOBY MUNDY, 40
ATLANTIC BOOKS, FOUNDER AND MD

Enjoying a Booker Prize triumph after publishing Aravind Adiga's debut novel, The White Tiger, and has ambitious hopes it can sell 500,000 copies. Mundy, who founded Atlantic in 2000, has an eclectic list of authors including Ian Buruma, Christopher Hitchens and Susan Faludi seriously intelligent publishing.

DIVORCE QUEEN

LAW
LADY WARD, 57
DIVORCE LAWYER

One of the most tenacious matrimonial lawyers in London, Helen Ward has been instructed by film director Guy Ritchie in his split from Madonna. Lady Ward, married to appeal judge Sir Alan, cemented her reputation last year when she won a record divorce award of £48million for her client Beverley Charman.

MAKING MOVES

FINANCE
STEPHEN HESTER, 47
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND

Property boss Hester, tipped for the RBS job in our Influentials magazine, has quit British Land to take on the mammoth task of turning around the troubled bank. The ex-Credit Suisse banker does not suffer fools and has already made a fortune he is not doing the RBS job for the money. His wife, also a banker, is a master of foxhounds in Warwickshire.

MAN ABOUT TOWN

SOCIAL LONDON
NICKY HASLAM, 69

Indefatigable partygoer who showed just how to host a party with a magnificent credit crunch-defying bash at Parkstead House, his former ancestral family home in Roehampton - at a rumoured cost of £200,000. Haslam was celebrating the 20th anniversary of his interior decoration business which is highly rated by his top-drawer clientele.

UNDER SCRUTINY

TV & RADIO
JANA BENNETT, 51
BBC DIRECTOR OF VISION

Oversees all of BBC TV and is the mastermind of plans to make the Corporation less "London-centric", moving the production of top programmes such as Question Time and (bizarrely) the Chelsea Flower Show to the far-flung regions. While the move may please Labour MPs in marginal constituencies, many BBC staff who live in the capital are dismayed.

UP AND COMING

MUSIC
ESTELLE, 28
SINGER

Hammersmith-born singer picked up two Mobos, Britain's top awards for black music, and is a rising star in America. Estelle is outspoken, criticising the UK music industry's "blindness" to black talent, but is also savvy and has the same management as The Feeling.