Sometimes you meet favourite writers and they disappoint; their real personalities don’t match up to the charm and intelligence of their writing. This has not been my experience in the last week.

Last Thursday I introduced the crime writer Peter Robinson to a packed audience at Leeds City Art Gallery, sparkling in its new incarnation, with freshly hung pictures and the Tiled Hall completely resplendent. Peter Robinson, though now living in Canada, was born and brought up in Leeds before going to the university to study English. He was utterly charming, talking fascinatingly about his Inspector Banks books, and the settings in North Yorkshire and Leeds, before reading the chilling opening to his latest novel Friend of the Devil, and taking questions from the floor.

More later about Fay Weldon, Kevin Crossly-Holland, Richard Mabey and John Julius Norwich