‘That song is everything to me. Everything. I can’t tell you. You wouldn’t believe it. And then to find out that one of my favourite songs is actually about one of my favourite people. It means – you have no idea. I mean, I think you’ve literally changed my life tonight.’

Well, you brought this on yourself, Siobhan thought, as Neil inserted himself into the conversation.

‘Gin and tonic. It’s Harris gin. Nice bottle. I don’t know anything about gin, me.’

Siobhan smiled her thanks at him, and then patted the woman on the arm.

‘I’m so glad you told me that. It means a lot to me too. Neil, this is – oh! I haven’t asked your name.’

‘Verity. I’m a very big fan of – actually, no, I don’t think the word fan really covers it. I don’t want you to think I’m one of those silly girls who scream nonsense at the concerts. I’m not. I’m more than – I mean, when I was growing up, you were basically my idol.’

Neil had raised an eyebrow at her, but Siobhan was in full Princess Diana mode, gracious and smiling, gently adjusting the weight on her feet to ease herself away from him.

‘Did I get the order right?’ he asked, pointing at the drink, as though Verity wasn’t there.

‘It’s always good to hear that what we do has reached someone, Verity. Thank you. Tell me about yourself – how do you know Clio?’

‘I started following her on Twitter after she was talking about her depression because I also suffer from depression –’ (‘No kidding,’ Neil muttered, in Siobhan’s ear) ‘– and I found her very inspiring. And she took the time to respond to me, and we got into conversation, and she’s been just a huge part of my life this last year. I’ve never met her before tonight, though, so I felt a bit nervous about coming. I’ve come all the way from Manchester for tonight, you know. But it’s been amazing, there are loads of people I’ve spoken to on Twitter here and it’s a very supportive environment. And I can’t believe I’m actually talking to you.’

‘Yeah, it’s always great to meet your heroes,’ said Neil, looking at her for the first time. ‘I felt like this when I got to interview Bowie, you know?’

‘David Bowie was really a problematic person,’ said Verity. ‘There are a lot of issues relating to his treatment of teenage groupies, his flirtation with fascist iconography, and his appropriation of queer identity.’

‘David Bowie was a fucking genius.’ Neil’s face got redder.

‘Of course you would think that. Old white men love other old white men.’ The girl was so fabulously blunt Siobhan thought she might kiss her. Instead, she grabbed each of their hands in turn for a quick squeeze.