Eight minutes before start time the two writers discovered they were both from Birmingham, even went to the same school, and both studied classics at Oxford.

On stage they agreed that advice to aspiring writers to ‘write what you know’ was misguided – although both have written novels inspired by their classical studies.

Lindsey Davis is known for her Falco mysteries, here launching her 27th novel, Enemies At Home, which examines human slavery, an issue outside the bounds of her former role as a civil servant.

Her view that writers would do best to wait until over 35, when they have experienced life and done a boring job every day, was perhaps less useful than “you need to know English grammar and how to edit”.

Natalie Haynes, who was a judge of last year’s Man Booker Prize, purported to have left behind comedy for tragedy in her novel.

Not so in her presenting style which was easy, light-hearted and at times tongue-in-cheek.

Davis generously praised her sense of place; Haynes’s new novel Amber Fury, based on a Greek tragedy she would not disclose for fear of spoiling the story before we’ve read it, is set in Edinburgh.