What a wizard party! The night JK Rowling danced with Peter Kay, Boris met Gorby and Sophie towered over her fiancé

While her husband fights for his political life, Sarah Brown put her best foot forward and dressed to impress at a star-studded charity fundraising ball.
The Prime Minister's wife dashed from the D-Day beaches in Normandy to be at the glamorous Russian-themed Raisa Gorbachev Foundation gala in South-West London.
She cut a stylish picture in purple as she joined entrepreneurs and guests from the worlds of the arts, showbusiness, politics and music for a lavish white-tie dinner at Hampton Court Palace.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was guest of honour.

And the £1.5 million raised will be split between the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation  -  which helps children with cancer, and is named after the Russian's late wife  -  and Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Saturday's event  -  which poignantly marked the tenth anniversary of Mrs Gorbachev's death from leukaemia  -  was a sell-out, with some 300 guests paying £1,500 a head.
They included Vanessa Redgrave, who has rarely been seen in public since the tragic death of her daughter Natasha Richardson in a skiing accident in March, and the author JK Rowling, resplendent in a plunging blue dress, who sat with Mrs Brown.

Among other guests were model-turned-author Sophie Dahl and her jazz musician fiance Jamie Cullum; actors Dougray Scott and Emilia Fox; Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon and his model wife Yasmin; singer Rachel Stevens; Rod Stewart's daughter Kimberly; socialites Tim Jeffries and his Swedish wife Malin; former It-girl Tamara Beckwith; Little Britain star David Walliams; comedian Peter Kay; and London Mayor Boris Johnson.
It was the fourth annual fundraiser and the £15,000-a-table extravaganza was organised by a committee that includes Madonna, London Evening Standard proprietor Alexander Lebedev, his son Evgeny  -  who is chairman of the foundation  -  Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig, the artist David Hockney and Lady Rothermere, wife of Viscount Rothermere, chairman of the Daily Mail and General Trust, which publishes the Daily Mail.

On a spectacular, if chilly, night the musical entertainment was provided by Pretenders star Chrissie Hynde, who stepped in after Annie Lennox had to pull out because of illness, and DJ Mark Ronson.

Earlier, a team of Cossack dancers provided pre-dinner entertainment, during which guests dined on roasted fillet of stone bass with summer vegetables, and strawberry pavlova.
Meanwhile, a hardy group of synchronised swimmers in pillar-box red swimsuits and floral hats performed an aquaballet routine in a large natural pool in the grounds.

The highlight of the evening was the auction, which saw Dragons' Den star James Caan pay £300,000 for a multi-coloured skeleton by Damien Hirst; Indian construction tycoon Cyrus Vandrevala and his wife Priya bid £75,000 for dinner with Mr Gorbachev at his dacha outside Moscow; and mobile phone tycoon John Caudwell pay £100,000 for a unique recording of love songs by the former Communist leader.

Evgeny Lebedev paid £55,000 for a Fiat car designed by artist Sir Peter Blake, while JK Rowling outbid all rivals to pay £12,000 for a cheeky lapdance by David Walliams.