Kazuo Ishiguro on his latest novel, ‘The Buried Giant’

Kazuo Ishiguro is frequently referred to as a very English novelist, so there can surely be few more appropriate venues to hear him talk than Oxford Town Hall.

Ready for the launch event of this year’s (currently ongoing) Oxford Literary Festival, the huge Victorian building with its elaborate plaster ceilings and highly decorated walls was filling rapidly as the 6pm start time approached. By 5.40pm, over 400 people had assembled in an expectant buzz. Ishiguro is a crowd puller as well as a spectacularly successful novelist.