The crushing, pitiful, and frequently just plain risible pathos of an unsuccessful actor/performer's life is well charted.

The real me now may not be thin but she's got the cake and, if she likes, can eat it too.

Does everyone turn into a truculent thirteen-year-old when they go home, or is it just me?

My parents both had Oxford degrees, they read important books, spoke foreign languages, drank real coffee and went to museums for pleasure. People like that don't have fat kids: they were cut out to be winners and winners don't have children who are overweight.

Success, in whatever form it takes, is a tricky thing - once you've achieved your goal, then what? Where do you aim?

As I was growing up, it was made clear that the fat me wasn't welcome, that a thin person was expected and awaited, and impatiently so.

The crushing, pitiful, and frequently just plain risible pathos of an unsuccessful actor/performer's life is well charted.