A chat after supper one night led to a pair of St Albans friends publishing their first adventure novel, The Corsican Exchange.

Robert Niblett and Keith Dobbs, who are both in their 60s, were inspired to pen the tale from their shared experience as members of St Albans Chamber Choir and interest in choral singing.

Keith, a chartered engineer and IT consultant who has lived in St Albans for more than 30 years, says: “We and our wives Ros and Joy are old friends; after supper one evening last summer we started talking about whether it was possible for two people to write a novel.”

He explains the pair started putting the book together by challenging each other to write alternate paragraphs, and finally published the finished work on Amazon Kindle in February.

The story is based around the town of Calvi in the Balagne region of Corsica, an area with a strong musical tradition in Corsican polyphony.

In this tale of twins, wealthy insurance companies and tight-lipped choirs, the lives of the choir members could not appear more ordinary, but as their lives unfold, they fall into unlikely situations that are laced with secrecy and threats.

“In our current choir we have a regular biennial concert and we visit with St Albans’ German twin town of Worms, so we have transposed this to Corsica,” explains Keith, who spends his holidays with wife Joy in North Corsica.

The book will feature alongside the second in the series, The Mozart Seminar, currently being written by the duo who release their work under the combined name of Robert Keith.

Robert, who has lived in St Albans for more than 35 years, says The Corsican Exchange has been well-received within the St Albans choir.

“It has made them laugh and we even have a choir member’s review on Amazon,” explains the retired senior civil servant.

“We hope that as many people as possible get as much pleasure from reading it as we had writing it.”

The Corsican Exchange is available at amazon.co.uk