How long do you stare at a blank sheet of paper before the words start to form and gain meaning, before the ideas begin to flow and a letter, an article, a short story or dissertation worthy of being called such forms beneath the point of your pen, the tips of your fingers? It seems,…

Dear David Grubb, I was came across your collection of poems – From The White Room – recently, trying to find suitable new homes for my collection of books as builders work on my house and push everything to one side and, as is to be expected, not achieving a great deal but dust and…

When someone says they are interested in finding someone else who has an interest in reading books, I am often tempted to think that such an interest is dying out, that we are a breed of people condemned to the history books, to be recalled in future generations as a strange hoard of old-timers with…

I’m not sure whether this is the ideal way to write, but it appeals to me at the moment and, aside from the fact that my fingers cannot seem to hit the right keys as easily as usual, due undoubtedly to the different position, it seems to work. I am stretched out on my couch,…

The Internet is a wonderful invention: it offers a wealth of information to those willing to search and learn; it provides a means of communication between people who might never have met otherwise, and the chance to exchange views and opinions, to live the experiences of people far away. It helps minds meet across the…

I thought you might be interested in a very short exchange I had the pleasure of experiencing, since you are so keen on finding the underside of society and, occasionally, exposing it. As you know my interest in letter writing takes me in many directions, some of the pleasant, some of them very short-lived. In…

It is very hard for me to imagine any half-way successful educational system which does not include the humane arts. It may well be that such a system is graded according to the results achieved in examinations, but that cannot be the deciding factor. Most people can learn dates and numbers by heart, spewing them…

The most interesting thing about letter writing is that it is usually shared with only one other person, unless they decide to pass their letter on to other people, as used to be done in the nineteenth century. It was not uncommon then that a letter writer received a reply from someone he had not…

Dear Sarah Bakewell, It was with great pleasure that I worked through your latest book – At the Existentialist Café – although it is difficult to term such an exercise in reading as work when so much pleasure is involved. Enough to say that it brought me and, undoubtedly, many other readers, in closer contact…

Dear McDonald’s Employee, thank you for taking my order this morning in a courteous and friendly manner, I appreciate it and also appreciate the fact that you are able to remain calm and friendly even when your customers treat you like a piece of dirt. I also appreciate the fact that, despite what many believe,…