John Julius Norwich introduced his new book Cities That Shaped The Ancient World by saying he hadn’t written it.

As he explained later, all he had done was provide “a modest degree of waffle” by way of introduction, but the packed audience in the Royal Pavilion for City Books had quickly realised that waffle from John Julius was priceless erudition, delivered with wit, charm, sagacity and humour.

He did admit to being the editor, but appeared more interested to praise his publisher, Thames And Hudson, and an editorial team of archaeologists and historians for producing a coffee table book that was possible to read in bed.

It isn’t really a coffee table book: it’s a serious study of urban life. In his utterly absorbing lecture, illustrated by dramatic slides, John Julius told us how agriculture enabled mankind to stay in one place and grow food instead of hunting it.

Thereafter, we needed buildings to stay in – successively made of straw, mud, wood, brick, stone and marble and increasingly grouped together.

A total of 40 worldwide cities feature in the book and we had a brief resume of ten, mostly now unimaginably picturesque ruins.