When our Penguin classic paperback, Aesop-The Complete Fables, was published in 2000 we went on a publicity trip to America. Here we are in an off-Broadway theatre where we gave an impromptu evening of discussion about the fables. We placed an empty chair between us to remind people of the third person, Aesop, who was absent.

We gave a talk about the book at Barnes & Noble bookstore in New York and this was taken beforehand with copies of the book piled each side of us. It was a nerve-wracking evening for Olivia as it was the first time she had ever stood up and spoken in front of an audience. I was unwell and had to sit down and tell her to get on with it! There were several old friends in the audience and a very strange woman in the middle who kept shaking her head in disapproval and mouthing the word “NO”. It was unnerving because we thought she must be an academic who was going to prove us wrong. She turned out to be a bit of a nut who asked Olivia about all the animals afterwards and said that they were the important things, not people, and when Olivia asked her name she said very firmly, “Shirley Temple”.