WHEN you are there, in person, you get an idea of what all the fuss and bother is about.

When you see how he effortlessly connects with an audience, somehow making it appear that he is speaking to each and every one of them individually, you understand why people will pay good money to listen to Bill Clinton.

Take, for example, the Democratic convention in the summer of 2004 in Boston.

Knowing that Clinton's oratorical skills would drown those of presidential candidate John Kerry, officials made sure the men addressed the party faithful on different days. It made no difference; despite Kerry's efforts it was Clinton's speech, and that of the then-unknown Barack Obama, that people remembered.

Or how about that October, just two months after he had had quadruple heart by-pass surgery, when Clinton stumped for Kerry in Philadelphia in the final days of the election campaign. "If that's not good for my heart I don't know what is, " Clinton told the crowd, putting his hand to his chest as 20,000 people cheered and roared. Even on that occasion, with his powers greatly reduced, he held his audience transfixed.

But if it has long been known how good a speaker Clinton is, it has now been revealed just how profitable an endeavour it has become for him. A report in a US newspaper shows that, from having left the White House six years ago in deep debt, the former president has now amassed around $40m ( 30m) from speaking fees. Last year alone he averaged around one speech a day and earned almost 7.5m.

An awful lot of the speeches he delivers are not for money. Of last year's 352 appearances, only 20% were for personal gain, the majority being given for no fee or in exchange for a contribution to the charitable foundation he has established to engage in such causes as Aids prevention and urban renewal. The William J Clinton foundation has reportedly received 45m this way.

When he appears for money, his bank account is boosted by hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time. New York investment bank Goldman Sachs, whose employees are major contributors to the campaign of his wife, senator Hillary Clinton, has paid the former president 490,000 for four speeches in recent years. Citigroup paid him 190,000 for a single speech in France in 2004. And Clinton is not scrambling to find work; he makes hundreds of speeches, but receives thousands of requests.

A-list celebrity

Clinton's appeal as a speaker is twofold. He is both a masterful orator and a true A-list celebrity. People want to hear him speak but they also want to associate themselves with him, just as they might with a film star. Stephen Hess, professor of public affairs at George Washington University and a former speechwriter for president John F Kennedy, said Clinton was, on occasion, a great speaker, but that was only part of the draw.

"Clinton is a great celebrity and people want to come out and look at him, " he said. "From the [event] host's point of view that can make them money.

They can sell tickets for the event, but normally it is done for public relations or branding purposes."

Of Clinton's skills, he added:

"He is like a musician. He takes a theme and does a riff, so it does not necessarily come out like the speechwriter would do it for him. Of course, he is a very smart guy so it's also true that he has a lot to say. . . He likes to speak because he likes words, he likes thoughts."

Clinton . . . and his speechwriters . . . also have the knack for killer lines, such as this simple, effective and memorable line from his inaugural address in January 1993:

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." Or this rather hokey gem, offered up to reporter Joe Klein: "Character is a journey, not a destination."

Sylvia Tidy-Harris, managing director of The Speakers Agency, which represents people ranging from Toyah Willcox to Rageh Omaar, said of Clinton: "He is a great orator, he is fantastic. He is one of the few people I would pay money to go and see."

Clinton's abilities as a speaker and campaigner have also long been recognised by his wife. In her 2003 memoir, are drawing up plans for her husband to campaign for her, but largely without her being present.

Of course, Clinton is not the first former president to have turned to speaking as a way of earning money.

Ronald Reagan made headlines shortly after he left office in 1989 when he travelled to Japan and earned 1.5m for personal appearances. Likewise both George Bush Sr and Jimmy Carter have earned considerable income from speaking.

Charitable work

But few have the same combination of A-list celebrity and charisma that Clinton appears to ooze. The former president's spokesman, Jay Carson, told the Washington Post: "The reason we picked paid speeches is that it is an efficient way for him to make a living for his family and allow him a lot of time to do charitable work, which is his passion."

As to deciding which invitations to accept and which to decline, Carson said Clinton tried to combine charitable work, his personal appearances and speeches that will benefit the Democrats. He added: "We take a look at his schedule and say, 'All right, he has to be in this place for this paid speech. There are three or four great things we've been meaning to do in this place. Let's do them.'" An example of this was last year when Clinton was booked for a 115,000 speech in Denver, Colorado, to the National Apartment Association, a trade body that represents landlords. On discovering that efforts to raise funds to build a memorial to the victims of Columbine were struggling, he offered to make a speech at a special ceremony. As a result, the fundraising saw an immediate boost. On that Colorado trip he also spoke to a group of head teachers.

Yet the report, published late last week, revealed that despite careful vetting and painstaking planning, Clinton's line of work has occasionally left him open to controversy. In 2005, for instance, he travelled to a resort in the Bahamas and earned 115,000 from the Swiss biotechnology firm Serono International. A few months later, the company pleaded guilty to two federal conspiracy charges and paid 535m in fines. Likewise, in December 2001 he accepted 95,000 to address an Illinois company at the centre of sexual harassment allegations.

Carson admitted: "We take our vetting process very seriously and we do our best to catch any issues. And given the volume of that, we are not always perfect."

One thing appears certain: Bill Clinton will not be giving up public speaking any time soon. Not only does he relish the attention, but given how profitable it has become, it is hard to see why he would want to stop.

As he joked with a US audience last year: "I never had a nickel to my name until I got out of the White House and now I'm a millionaire, the most favoured person for the Washington Republicans. I get a tax cut every year, no matter what our needs are."

SPEAK EASY: OTHER BIG EARNERS RUDOLPH GIULIANI

HE may not be a world leader just yet (although he is a major Republican presidential hopeful), but Rudy Giuliani has been able to capitalise on his income since standing down as mayor of New York. Thanks to his handling of the situation post-11 September, Giuliani is loved by politicians and businessmen alike, and reportedly earns up to 150,000 a speech.

ALBERT REYNOLDS

REYNOLDS' prominent role in the Northern Ireland peace process has made him a highly attractive "gure for the US lecture circuit. In the years immediately after his departure as Taoiseach, Reynolds was in particular demand, commanding fees of $20,000 to $30,000 per speaking engagement. He is listed on the '21st Century Speakers' website, which hails him for "bringing peace in our time to the island of Ireland". Before he took up his job as EU ambassador to Washington, John Bruton was commanding as much as $20,000 a session for his public speaking engagements.

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF PERVEZ

MUSHARRAF may still be president of Pakistan but that didn't stop him using a visit to the US late last year to publicise his somewhat selfcongratulatory autobiography, In the Line of Fire, for which he was reportedly paid a hefty six-figure sum.

Despite being panned by critics, the book has sold millions of copies worldwide. His appearance on the cult comedy hit The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has cemented his reputation as a charismatic and surprisingly witty speaker.

NELSON MANDELA

EVER since his release from prison, the former South African president has happily used his name and reputation to generate a steady flow of income, which is usually then piled into charitable causes. From winning the Nobel peace prize (worth 750,000) in 1993 to speeches and appearances that can easily command six-figure sums, he has become one of the most financially successful former leaders. Even his paintings have been known to fetch tens of thousands of pounds.

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

TURNING the world's largest Communist state into a fully-fledged member of the capitalist community not only paid dividends for Mikhail Gorbachev when he was in power, it has since made him one of the world's most highly sought-after speakers. Since departing office, Gorbachev has become one of the world's best-paid speakers, a prominent fundraiser and memoirist and has even appeared in an ad for Pizza Hut. His latest incarnation is as a fully paid-up member of New York's writing elite with a column in the New York Times.

TONY BLAIR

LEAVING a lasting legacy is not only a good way to ensure your name is remembered after you are gone, it can also ensure financial success on the lecture circuit.

Now commanding a salary of around 250,000, conservative estimates of Tony Blair's post-Downing Street earnings exceed 30m. If he ever writes the by now-mandatory memoirs, publishers have suggested the British prime minister could easily command a seven-figure advance, as well as lecture and afterdinner speech fees projected to be well above the 150,000 mark.

JOHN MAJOR

ALTHOUGH he has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office, former British prime minister John Major commands fees in excess of 40,000 as an afterdinner speaker. For that sum, his agency says, "Major can provide audiences with insights and his own opinions on the expanding European Union, the future of the rest of the world in the 21st century and also about Britain". A tabloid investigation in the late 1990s claimed Major received a 900,000 advance on his memoirs and that one eight-day speaking tour netted him 240,000.

WILLIAM HAGUE

BEFORE taking up his post as shadow foreign secretary in Britain, William Hague was believed to earn more than 1.5m a year after he stepped down as Conservative Party leader. He received at least 574,000 for 53 speaking engagements, another 240,000 for his column in the News of the World, and another 165,000 from advisory jobs. Since the beginning of last year, he has scaled back his commitments to concentrate on his job in the shadow cabinet, but he is still Britain's highest-paid