When you have millions of pounds and some of your friends have even more, bragging rights are hard to come by. However Simon Cowell, he of the high trousers and white smile, came out on top last night when his time was auctioned for charity at a higher price than anyone else.

An hour with Mr Cowell, the X-Factor supremo and boss of Syco entertainment company, was bought for £19,000 by Lucian Grainge, the chief executive of rival music company Universal Music, beating Sir Philip Green’s auction price by £1,000.

There has been much speculation recently that Mr Grainge would like Mr Cowell to bring his business to Universal so the hour could be used to try to persuade the pop mogul to do so.

While that would be an interesting conversation to hear it would be equally fascinating to listen in on the hour that Sir Philip bought with Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, for £11,000.

The movers and shakers, including David Starkey, the historian, Judy Cramer, the producer of Mamma Mia and Gillian Tett, a financial journalist, were being auctioned in aid of the Krug Mindshare campaign, with the money each person raised going towards their own chosen charity.

More than £78,500 was raised at the auction at Christie’s this week. An hour with Sir Martin Sorrell went for £6,000, Natalie Massenet, founder and owner of net-a-porter.com, fashion retailer, sold for £10,200 and property developer Nick Candy for £4,000.

Sir Salman Rushdie was not deemed as exciting by bidders and went for £650.

Charities:

— Sir Salman Rushdie: Breakthrough Breastcancer

— Sir Martin Sorrell: Jewish Care

— Sir Philip Green: The Autism Trust

— Natalie Massenet: Fashion Targets Breast Cancer

— Judy Craymer: Breast Cancer Research Foundation

— Arsène Wenger: Great Ormond Street Hospital

— David Starkey: RNID

— Nick Candy: Elton John Aids Foundation

— Gillian Tett: Meningitis Research Foundation

— Simon Cowell: Children’s Hospices