I finished my last letter to you with a reference to the long conversation carried out over one hundred and twenty years about the value of Cicero’s Latin. What I didn’t point out was that this conversation began considerably earlier, but was not considered part of the whole; not waged between Renaissance Humanists trying to…

Someone asked me recently how it is possible for me – or anyone else, I presume – to write to a person I do not know; how can I find anything to write about and where, if any, are the connections to those I write to. The person who asked is one of those whose…

In her introduction to Pliny’s Letters, published in 1969, Betty Radice notes that Gaius Plinius Luci filius Caecilius Secundus (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, son of Lucius of the tribe Oufentina, better known to us as Pliny the Younger) followed the principle of a single theme for his letters rather than the scholastic Rule of Three…

Asking questions is not one of my strong points when it comes to writing letters, or even getting to know people in real life, and that despite a reasonably strong belief that the best way to let someone reveal themselves is to challenge them in some way; questions being the most immediate form of challenge…

For some reason my cat has taken a strong dislike to me writing letters; more than that, to me sitting at my writing desk and working on anything that has to do with either reading or writing. Since these two occupations take up practically all my time at home – home being the office as…

Nothing reminds you of the way things were, than coming back to them all of a sudden. In my last letter I wrote about the differences between the small town where I now live and life in London – among other things – and these past few days some of those differences have been brought…

What was freezing cold in my last letter is now mild and inviting. The weather has gradually moved from its winter modus into the beginnings of spring, although we are warned, as every year, that this is only a temporary measure, the heavens will send down a few more cold fronts and allow bitter winds…

My fresh, clean sheet of paper comes very late in the day this time; although my diary has been updated there has been no chance to sit down in peace and quiet, and dedicate myself to the pleasures of putting other words on paper. The new page in a diary, having run for so many…