We entered the foyer and I read the poster advertising the event. What the history of British isolationism should teach us about the impact of leaving the EU. Andrew Lancaster was arguing the case for disaster against another historian who was in favour of us leaving. There were wine glasses on a long table but no wine in them yet. You had to do the time to earn the wine. We were five minutes late and a man on the door to the hall beckoned us over, just as a door opened at the other end of the foyer and three late-middle-aged men walked in, one of whom was Andrew Lancaster. I waved in his direction. He gave me a puzzled look and nodded; he hadn’t recognised me.

The seats were nearly all taken, so Leo and I had to sit separately. I squeezed past people’s knees to find an empty chair in the middle of an aisle, and as I did I looked up and caught sight of Emily a few rows behind me. She raised her hand and smiled at me, just as the man who had accompanied the speakers spoke into the microphone on the stage to start proceedings.

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