Anna Smaill read an excerpt from her debut novel The Chimes and spoke about the inspiration behind its dystopian setting.
The Chimes, which is being talked up as a potential Man Booker Prize contender, follows the narrator and main character, Simon Wythern, as he leaves his home to travel to London in a dystopian future where reading and writing have been banned and music is the organising principle of life.
Her novel also focuses on memory, with the populace having their memories wiped each day by a massive musical instrument - hence the name The Chimes.
The novel draws heavily on Smaill's - an accomplished violinist - knowledge and love of classical music.
She told the about 70 people who came to yesterday's event she also drew on personal experience when coming up with the setting.
Having lived in London for six years when she wrote the book, setting it there never really seemed like a decision and the main character's experience of the city was inspired by her own.
''It was a reaction to my experience of living in London as an outsider, as well.''
She recalled the moment when Wythern's voice came to her ''out of the blue'' as she was in a bus going across the Thames.
''It was one of the first things that made me think `I am going to write this book' because [the voice] was so strong.''
Creating her own world in the novel came with challenges but was also ''liberating'' for the first time novelist.
''There was something very intoxicating about building a world.''
''It felt very much like every day I would enter into that world ... like the experience I would imagine an actor has when they put on a costume.''
