Oxford authors Philip Pullman and Katherine Rundell shared their storytelling secrets with 750 fans at the Sheldonian Theatre.

Mr Pullman, author of the award-winning fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, was at the historic venue to talk about his latest book, Daemon Voices, a collection of essays on storytelling techniques.

Ms Rundell, whose latest children's story The Explorer won the £5,000 Costa Children's Book Award, joined Mr Pullman to explain how she conducted research for her acclaimed tales.

While Ms Rundell, a Fellow at All Souls College, told how she travelled to the Amazon to research her latest adventure story, Mr Pullman said he was not keen on leaving his study.

He told the audience on Thursday: "I don't like travel - I dread the idea of going to Kidlington.

"I write the kind of books where you can sit there and make it up."

Mr Rundell said she was inspired to visit the Amazon after reading Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson.

The Explorer tells the tale of four children fighting for survival in the Amazon rainforest.

Ms Rundell got the chance to travel to the Amazon after a previous novel Rooftoppers won the £5,000 Waterstones prize.

She said: “I fell in love with the place – it is so beautiful.

“It feels like the kind of place where possibilities happen – we were taught how to catch tarantulas and we caught pirahnas.

“Children told me tarantulas tasted like prawns – Selfridges sell them dried so I ate tarantulas – they tasted like bad ham, the children had been lying.”

After revealing that she suffered 170 mosquito bites before she returned home Ms Rundell, who wrote her first book when she was eight, told Mr Pullman: “Your places feel more real than the places we inhabit.”

Mr Pullman told his fans that work was progressing well on the second part of his Book of Dust trilogy.

The first instalment, La Belle Sauvage, came out in October and was a bestseller.

It features characters who appeared in His Dark Materials.

The author, who lives in Cumnor, said: “I discarded two chapters this very morning – it’s going well.

“It’s 500 pages long – it’s far too long but I can cut and clarify – it’s great fun.

“It’s so much easier to do now (editing) – I’m old enough to have written books on a typewriter.

“I’m not sure if the new book will be in time for it to be out a year after the last one.”

Following the talk Mr Pullman revealed that a maze in the garden of his cottage had to be cut back after it was plagued by a fungus called box blight.

The maze has been replaced by lavender beds.

The talk at the Sheldonian was organised by Blackwell’s.

Fans queued for over an hour afterwards to get copies of their books signed.