This coming Monday evening the whole of Rochester House, the old Oxford central telephone exchange and mail sorting office, will come alive after many years of disuse. Its three rambling, empty buildings, linked around a courtyard, will fill with people gathering for the launch of an extraordinary exhibition.

Other Worlds is a celebration of stories and the imagination, as is The Story Museum itself, the new owner of this warren of deserted rooms, dusty passages, gloomy staircases, rundown loading bays and other eccentric spaces. The celebration takes the form of installations by 25 writers collaborating with visual artists. Each pair or group of collaborators has been invited to tell a story that draws its inspiration from the space they have been allocated, a story that takes its audience into another world.

Most of the installations are now in place, apart from those of the Scottish contingent, me included, who haven’t…