In April 2017, the annual Oxford Literary Festival hosted a panel discussion for first-time authors. One of the panellists was Paula Cocozza, a journalist at the Guardian, the other, a little-known 26-year-old author from Dublin by the name of Sally Rooney. The following month, Rooney’s first novel, Conversations with Friends, was set to be released, having been sold in a competitive seven-way auction the previous year. But despite the battle to gain the rights to her debut I recall that only around 10 people showed up. Half of whom were publishers.