STILL BADLY BRUISED - BUT BIG PAY DAYS EASE THE PAIN

AlTHoUGH billed as a major lecture, it was all bit of a comedown. The venue was a recreation centre in a city in Indiana (pop 10,000) and advance notices said ‘no ticket necessary’. This was the scene at DePauw University when David Cameron was invited to deliver a speech to students. How painful the title of his talk must have been to him — The Historic Events of 2016 And Where We Go From Here.

Those ‘historic events’ cost him his job, leaving him to spend his days writing his memoirs, doing the school-run and making occasional speeches.

How different from six months ago when he was striding the world stage as an international statesman.

Admittedly, the speaking circuit can be very lucrative. Cameron is said to be charging £120,000 an hour. What’s more, the Indiana university venue is considered to be an important stepping stone for speakers who want to give regular talks to America’s power elite.

last week, Cameron (who has set up a company — The office of David Cameron ltd — to handle his activities after leaving No 10) was in India, making another speech. Some of his asides — such as how bad he is at golf — were a world away from the events of 2016.

So, how else is David Cameron coping? Since his resignation on June 24 and subsequent decision to stand down as an MP, sightings have been rare. He spent the summer licking his wounds at the family home in the hamlet of Dean, near Chipping Norton, oxfordshire.

He has been badly bruised by the speed with which his Westminster career unravelled — over before his 50th birthday — and has restricted his social outings to the company of close friends.

Among these was a lunch with neighbouring oxfordshire Tory MPs, who wanted to thank him for his support as an MP and then as Prime Minister.

He was guest of honour at the home of Sir Tony Baldry, who stood down as MP for Banbury last year. The menu included a hearty beef stew followed by homemade apple pie and cream.

Each guest paid tribute to Cameron, who spoke briefly about his love of his constituency and assured his successor (barrister Robert Courts) that he would not be a backseat driver.

Baldry said: ‘It was informal and low key. We wanted to say thank you to David for being such a loyal neighbour and friend. He was in good spirits and it was nice to see him relax.’

During the two-hour lunch, there was no mention of the referendum — or Theresa May.

Inevitably, there has been speculation that Cameron may sever his links with oxfordshire. Many MPs sell their constituency homes as soon as they retire or lose their seats. They invariably say they do not want to overshadow their successor, but the truth is they want to move far away from their old lives.

But Cameron and his wife Samantha have the most poignant of reasons why they will never sell up. Their disabled son, Ivan, who died aged six in 2009, is buried at the 13th-century St Nicholas’s Church in Chadlington, a village in Cameron’s old constituency.

A friend told me: ‘They will not leave Ivan behind. They love the house, which is filled with memories of their son — and they often talk about him. They also have good friends in the area who are nothing to do with the political world.’

Cameron, who bought the oxfordshire property when he became candidate for Witney, was the lynchpin of what became known as the ‘Chipping Norton set’ — a group of movers and shakers from the worlds of politics, the City and media.

It includes Jeremy Clarkson, an ardent Remainer, who has invited the former PM to join his Boxing Day hunt.

Cameron used to ride with the Heythrop Hunt. But he reluctantly gave up hunting when he became Tory leader. His advisers feared photos of him on horseback in pursuit of a fox would reinforce the image of an Eton-educated toff.

It will be fascinating to see whether, now no longer having to cultivate voters, he will ride to hounds again.

Also, will he jettison cheap easyJet flights to holidays in Europe and wearing the same old polo shirts and, instead, revert to enjoying the luxury and exotic destinations and posher clothes popular with people from his background? C AMERoN’S memoirs are due to be published in the autumn of 2018. But he’s finding the writing a hard slog. I’m told that he has only reached 2001 — when he was first elected as an MP.

He has a lot of material. Controversially, he broke with tradition while Prime Minister by secretly recording 52 hours of conversation with his close friend, journalist lord Finkelstein. They met once a month at No10. The tapes will form the basis of his book.

Samantha is adapting to her new life, too. Principally, she is looking after their three children. She has also set up her own fashion label — going into business with her former Downing Street stylist Isabel Spearman.

The label is called, CEFINN — a name which is an amalgamation of ‘Cameron’ and their children’s initials (the ‘C’ and ‘N’ from their family surname, ‘E’ from Elwyn, ‘F’ from Florence, ‘I’ from Ivan and ‘N’ from Nancy.)

As Cameron ponders his future, at least he is free from money worries. He has been approached about consultancies and directorships but is declining all offers. ‘The speeches will sustain him until the memoirs are completed,’ said a friend. ‘only then will he consider what to do with the rest of his life.’

Meanwhile, he is content to explain his humiliating role in the The Historic Events of 2016 to students in an American recreation centre.