Susie Boyt:

Although obsessed with all things theatrical, this column tries to eschew any mention of celebrities. But when out of the blue Barry Manilow invites you to lunch because he likes something you’ve written, it’s not so easy keeping it under your hat.
We sat for a few hours in the pink and gold dining room of a fancy hotel, talking about our passions. He said something I’ve never heard anyone say before: “I think it’s a great idea if you end up doing for a living what you were happiest doing at 14.” He was happiest writing songs and singing, he said, and me? I was happiest doing my homework, sitting at a trestle table looking longingly and with great approval at my collection of pencils and glue sticks, rattling my little cough sweet tin filled with ink cartridges, joyfully greeting each fresh white sheet of my preferred Oxford file paper (the one with narrow grey lines and sky-blue margins) with a mild frisson and then filling it with writing. Sixty per cent carthorse, 40 per cent thoroughbred, I got results. I put so much into my homework. I think it even got the teachers down a little bit.