I didn't get to see Frost/Nixon at the weekend but I did make it to Henry Porter's talk in Wootton-by-Woodstock village hall on Friday night.

Wootton is hidden down in a dip off the A44 and it was dark by the time I parked up near the village church.

About 100 yards around the corner I spotted what looked like a small shed and thought the building was far too small to host the talk.

But there was quite a din coming from inside, and when I opened the door to the hall I could see it had a Tardis-like quality, with quite a few people milling around.

The chap on the door taking tickets was dressed as a German border guard, and the villagers had constructed a miniature Berlin Wall as a backdrop for Mr Porter's talk.

The author of Brandenburg and A Spy's Life came brandishing a bundle of notes but did not need them for his fascinating 40-minute briefing followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session.

German food was handed outy by mein host Andrew Morgan, the organiser of a series of talks at the village hall, which will raise money for its refurbishment.

The controller of Radio Four has been signed up, and John Lloyd, the man behind the unstoppable QI machine has, apparently, also agreed to come along.

The owner of the new bookshop in Woodstock was in the hall to sell copies of Porter's novels, and Brandenburg, which is set around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, not surprisingly sold out.

I bagged a copy of A Spy's Life and I am already gripped.

I've been to one or two great author talks/signings over the years and this was definitely one of them, so I'm glad Jericho-based photographer Adrian Arbib was there to take some atmospheric photographs.

Porter was on very good form and the locals really pushed the boat out to give him a warm welcome.

He signed my copy of Brandenburg and intimated that the lead character Rudi Rosenharte was partly based on him.

I declined a kind invitation from Andrew Morgan to join the author and some other villagers for drinks after the talk as it was getting late by that stage.

I now look forward to reading Porter's futuristic take on Big Brother Britain in the 21st century, when it comes out in the Autumn.