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And then, organiser Emma Bent - e-reader in hand - calls for silence.

In hindsight, he said he wished he had prepared his Kindle e-reader with more reading material - and packed a lot more beef jerky.

It is not yet available for Kindle users, but Hunter says that’s the company’s next step – a necessary one given that Amazon’s e-reader is the preferred device of three-quarters of digital bibliophiles.

Quite obviously, Amazon could never get away with such restrictive rules if it had genuine competition in the ebook or e-reader markets.

That’s worked well with its Kindle group, as consumers who own an e-reader purchase e-books for years, with Amazon taking a cut of each sale.