JUST over a decade ago, Oxford writer Sylvia Vetta met Chinese artist Qu Leilei in this exact spot at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum and it changed her life.

In 2005, he was the star of the museum's first ever one-man show, Everyone's Life is an Epic, which told some of his story living under Mao Zedong's dictatorship.

The exhibition had such a profound effect, she ended up writing an entire novel inspired by it.

The book, Brushstrokes in Time, had its official launch party at Blackwells bookshop in Oxford last month to an audience of 100.

But tomorrow it will have a second, more personal launch at Ms Vetta's spiritual home – her village library in Kennington, of which she is a dedicated custodian.

From 11am, she will use the intimate setting to tell the personal story behind her debut novel.

Sylvia Vetta will be well-known to many as an Oxford Times columnist and the author of the much-loved Castaways series in the Times' Limited Edition magazine – a Desert Island Discs-style feature where well-known Oxfordshire figures are sent to the fictional island of Oxtopia.

She has also contributed to several factual books about Kennington and Oxford, but Brushstrokes in Time is her first foray into fiction.

And it would never have happened had she not been asked to review Qu Leilei's 2005 exhibition for the Oxford Times.

The Chinese artist was one of 12, including the now-world famous Ai Weiwei, who formed the radical arts movement The Stars.

In 1979, after they were refused permission to hold an exhibition in the China Art Gallery, the rebel artists staged their show illegally on the railings outside.

When they were forced to remove the works, they organised a protest march in the name of human rights and were allowed to hold a second exhibition inside.

But by 1983, under growing political pressure, the group separated: Ai Weiwei went to New York and Qu Leilei came to England.

Brushstrokes in Time weaves some of those real events into a fictional narrative.

Ms Vetta said: "At the centre of the novel is the story of Winnie – previously known as Little Winter, a mother describing her life story to her American daughter, pivoting between the past and present, introducing her daughter to loves passed and tragedies experienced - expressing emotions that have not only shaped her life but also in a way, her daughter's."

People are invited to arrive at Kennington Library from 10.30am for tomorrow's talk.

That talk will be followed by a London launch party with Qu Leilei himself on Thursday at the Polka Theatre, Wimbledon, from 7.15pm.

Brushstrokes in Time, published by Claret Press, is available at bookshops and online booksellers for £7.99.