Armed police patrolled the bustling streets of Gibraltar, so long associated with the British military, and a prominent public building, the Tower of Homage, was lit with the colours of the French flag.

On the Rock, where book lovers gathered for the third Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival, the dreadful events in Paris were rarely far from our minds.

At Sunday’s festival service, led by Rabbi Dr Abraham Levy, a minute’s silence was observed in memory of the dead. “We are saddened but do not despair,” said Dr Levy.

Soon after, in the presence of Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo QC, the Oxford academic Dr Peter Frankopan raised matters relevant to the tragedy as he delivered the Gibraltar Lecture.

Its theme was taken from his best-selling book The Silk Road: A New History of the World which deals with empires and cultures too little studied in our schools and universities, Dr Frankopan says.

Arguing strongly against the Eurocentric nature of the history syllabus, he urged the need for greater awareness and understanding of the wider world.

He said: “The growing antipathy towards the West is something we are totally ill-equipped to understand. We are living in a world in which there is rising discontent with Western values.

“If you teach history as a series of myths” [he cited Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun] “then we are in for a difficult time ahead. When you don’t look at history from a correct perspective, you can’t learn from your mistakes.”

Dr Frankopan is working to change matters not only with his books but in his day job as a research fellow of Worcester College and director of Oxford University’s Centre for Byzantine Research.

Remarkably, he manages an altogether different side to a busy life as boss with his wife Jessica of the Curious Group of Hotels which has luxury properties in London, Paris and Amsterdam, as well as Cowley Manor, near Cheltenham, a byword for Cotswold chic.

Its annual Cowley Manor Arts Award for outdoor sculpture, organised for students of the Royal College of Art, is a welcome feature of the cultural scene, as this column has noted in the past.

Intuiting a likely coincidence of interest, I was pleased to introduce Peter – on the sunny terrace of the lovely Garrison Library – to my friend Donald Sloan, who heads the School of Hospitality Management at Oxford Brookes University.

Busy as ever as a festival regular, where the foodie side of the event was concerned, Don interviewed, among others, the Oxfordshire (and London) restaurateur Antony Worrall Thompson, who had overseen a fine dinner in Moroccan style in a tent at the Rock Hotel.

Over pre-dinner drinks beside the swimming pool, I reminded him that it was with just such a dinner, composed of couscous, tagines and the like, that he had first fed me, a very long time ago, as consultant chef at Old Luxters Farmhouse, a winery hear Henley.

The prominence of Oxford figures at the festival owes much of course to the intellectual and cultural eminence of our area.

But it is a function, too, of the fact that the festival is delivered in fine style by the team – headed by director Sally Dunsmore and special adviser Tony Byrne – who also bring us the Oxford and Blenheim Palace festivals.

Over four days on the Rock this year, they offered a superb programme of well-attended events in wonderful settings.

It was a special pleasure for me to spend time with Frank Close, Oxford University’s Professor of Physics, who shares something of my background as a Peterborough Grammar School boy and one-time steam train enthusiast.

An early festival reception found me in the company of the composer, choirmaster, teacher and writer (and Oxford city councillor) Anthony Gant and William Chislett, whose dad Bill was principal music buff on the Oxford Mail.

Kidlington-based art historian James Hamilton was present throughout as well.

The opportunity to mingle with so many stimulating companions was not to be missed. I urge others to sample the Gibraltar experience.