1. Lynn Barber
The world's most acerbic interviewer; feature writer and rightly feared profiler, 1990-93.
2. Matthew Sweet
Broadcaster all over Radios 3 and 4, writer, journalist; film critic, 1998-99, and feature writer.
3. Robert Chote
Chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility; economics writer, 1990-94.
4. Sebastian Faulks
Novelist, broadcaster and writer of James Bond "continuation" books; deputy editor, 1989-91.
5. Zoë Heller
Confessional columnist turned literary novelist; feature writer and columnist, 1990-95.
6. Anthony Lane
Wit, stylist and giant of film criticism for the mighty New Yorker; film critic, 1990-93.
7. Blake Morrison
Poet and memoirist (And When Did You Last See Your Father?); literary editor, 1990-95.
8. Maggie O'Farrell
Novelist of sisterhood and loss; editorial assistant rising to deputy literary editor, 1996-2000.
9. Robert Peston
Scooptastic political editor, ITV News, with the unusual diction; City editor, 1990-91.
10. Janet Street-Porter
Journalist and broadcaster with an even more distinctive diction than Peston's; editor, 1999-2002.
