It is said that the hardest part of writing a letter to someone you do not know – or, better, who you do not know yet but wish to convince it is worthwhile getting to know – is the opening sentence. You are faced with this blank sheet of paper and all the best ideas…

What struck me most were the words you wrote about loneliness, that you can be amongst a group of people, take part in all the activities available, spend all your time in conversations, gossip, laughter, and still feel lonely despite it all. The knowledge that most if not all of these people are going to…

I wish there was something childlike – whether it be for nature and art as you write, or for other things in our modern world – about many of the younger adults, teenagers and even children that I come across in my daily wanderings. The world seems to have become a place where everything has…

Looking back, I think that the worst time of my life, and it covers many years, was mail call. Not so much because everyone else seemed to get post when I didn’t, but more because it was expected that we be there, and I knew I was going to get nothing. The only person who…