As the helicopter hovered over the prestigious literary festival in the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye, there was fevered speculation on the ground that the arriving passenger was Hollywood A-lister Benedict Cumberbatch.
The Sherlock Holmes actor was topping the bill at the festival where fellow thespian Damian Lewis was also due to speak.
But when the passengers emerged from the helicopter there was an audible sense of disappointment. ‘Who are they?’ went up the cry.
They turned out to be two unknown authors who had jointly written a new book, Greater: Britain After The Storm. One was a multi-millionaire public relations guru by the name of Chris Lewis; the other was Penny Mordaunt, then a junior trade minister.
Weeks later, despite being catapulted into the limelight in the Tory leadership race, Mordaunt is virtually unknown. A poll this week found that just one in nine people could pick her out from a crowd, with many who were shown a picture of her thinking she was the singer Adele.
