Saturday’s programme at the Thame Arts and Literature Festival features three fine writers whose latest books I happen to have read and can wholeheartedly recommend.

First up is Thomas Mogford, the sports reporter son of Oxford hotelier Jeremy Mogford. He is talking about his excellent new novel Shadow of the Rock (Bloomsbury, £12.99), the first in a planned series featuring Gibraltar-based sleuth Spike Sanguinetti. Thomas presented me with a copy of the book last month on the eve of my departure on a Greek holiday. The gripping adventure proved ideal reading on my first few days in the sunshine.

After Thomas comes Sonia Purnell, author of Just Boris (Aurum Press, £8.99). Which Boris, of course, hardly needs explaining. The book makes mention of an old schoolmaster of mine who later taught David Cameron at Eton. Surprisingly, he had no recollection of him. Sonia supplied me with the beak’s contact details, for which kindness I have yet to thank her. He very definitely remembered me. We enjoyed a lunch together at my local pub, The Punter, (where Cameron recently dined, incidentally).

Afternoon visitor Edna O’Brien, whose Country Girl (Faber and Faber, £20) I review on our books page today, is followed by Andro Linklater, author of Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die (Bloomsbury, £10.99). I am looking forward to meeting him, though I have yet to read his book. This is a deficiency I shall shortly remedy. In this bicentennial year of the murder of Perceval — the only British prime minister to have been assassinated — I am ashamed to admit utter ignorance of the circumstances surrounding it.