I estimated that the 10 stone that B planned to lose within twelve months was half her body weight. Given her track record with the scales, I very much doubted that she would ever achieve this, but I kindly kept this opinion to myself.

Instead I walked over to the easel at which her son T was making rapid brush strokes in green on a wide canvas. His work was very amateur, yet it was obvious that he would make a much more successful artist than his mother a dieter.