In contrast to the ensemble cast and time jumps of Nicholls’ mega-hit One Day, this is a defiantly small-scale work, a two-hander that mostly plays out on a single hiking path. It does, however, reprise the wry humour of One Day, which was an underplayed note in the otherwise superlative recent TV adaptation. Nicholls somehow maintains a warm tone while occasionally indulging in some judicious snark.

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There are quips on the thematically confused taverns and rubbish bed and breakfasts the characters encounter on their journey and some of the most inspired Nicholls comic set pieces since his Starter for Ten, such as Marnie trying to edit an orgy scene rendered incomprehensible by overuse of commas and grammatical blunders.

There’s a certain predictability to the narrative arc, but it’s in the small details that Nicholls triumphs: the comic grace notes, the deft analogies, the fleeting moments of transcendence rendered in stylish, approachable prose.

Like many compelling stories, You Are Here is both highly specific and universal. On one level, it’s a simple, melancholic story of two people walking across a small patch of England and their quotidian concerns – the blistered feet, the conversational dead ends. But in a broader sense, it’s an exploration of human connections lost and maybe refound – and a celebration of the rare connection that can lift people out of seemingly intractable loneliness.