For many years I have kept a file of press cuttings about the success (or otherwise) enjoyed by writers. Every so often I have a look through this file to see if there any useful lessons to be learnt from these snippets; and on my latest trawl through, two reports in particular caught my eye.
On 10 November 1997, the journalist Libby Purves published an interview in The Times with a man whom she knew slightly from waiting at the same school gate. His name was Robert Mawson.