Ambling floatily around the front of a bubbling Saturday morning theatre in a kaleidoscopic dress and skyscraper lime green heels, Laura Dockrill’s well of energy emanated up the stairs like magic dust from one of her psychedelic stories.

Originally known as a Cockney-twanged performance poet with a Brit school upbringing which spawned friendships with pop stars Kate Nash and Adele, this could well be the Roald Dahl lover’s breakthrough year as an author: Darcy Burdock, the 11-year-old subject of her new book, has already been fondly received, although her response to one cherubic enquiry about the potential autobiographical nature of the character – “What do you fink?” deadpanned Dockrill – suggested her material comes from close to home.

Her lyrical readings revealed an octopus “who’s a bit ugly, a bit of a loser, but we like him” and the subsequent romantic mores of a sea maiden.

The sweetest moments, though, might just have been in Dockrill’s reflections on her own career.

Having struggled with spelling and grammar at school, she recalled, the offer of £50 to perform her poetry while she was still working in a clothes shop caused “a mental rocket explosion in my brain”.

She might be away with the fairies, but her spirit is endearingly down-to-earth.