Hard as I try, I haven’t managed yet to visualise, let alone put into words, what could possibly constitute a typical American. I am sure that there are one or two things which everyone from the United States shares, aside from the fact that most were born there and will live their lives and eventually…

Today is almost something of an anniversary in that my very first letter to you was written and sent on 20 February 2017, and also a day of celebration, if you like, as I see that only one other person of the many I wrote to, when I first got back to letter writing, is…

Valentine’s Day is one of those many celebratory holiday-style events I have allowed to slip from my memory, along with my birthday, Christmas, Easter and any other time when family and friends are meant to contact you, exchange gifts or just be present in your life. I think this goes right back to my childhood…

I must admit to having been richly amused as you wrote that you are older – and mentioned exactly how old – and that some things might not be retained in your mind and memory, as if you were suffering from some form of disease or malady connected to old age which brings forgetfulness with…

My first task of the day, after seeing to what the cat wanted with its incessant mewing, was to brush the remains of snow, from the sidewalk in front of my house, into the storm drain. We have some seemingly strange rules here in Germany, ones which catch a lot of people out when they…

Well, it would seem that my last letter to you, from 20 November 2017 was not quite the success it should have been. I made the mistake of writing to you on the letter paper I have been using for several decades, which is a very decent, lightly toned heavyweight paper highly suited to personal…

I was going to start this first letter with a proverb I have half in my memory and which, for many, is practically a daily thought they might have every time some plan doesn’t go according to their wishes, or they aren’t able to get something done either through a lack of will or some…

For the record, when it comes to letter writing, it is sometimes those snap decisions which pay off far more than the well-considered and long thought over choices. When we try to find the ideal person to write to, it is often someone who is much the same as us that we are actively looking…

One of the things I have discovered over the last year or so, and something which has proven me and many others wrong on so many counts, is the idea that smart people – however you might wish to define the word – do not end up in prison. Sometimes it can be exactly those…

Conversations would be the most boring pastime ever if we all had the same information, on the same topics, and held the same opinion. Fine, there are probably a few other things which are equally or more tedious and which make us yawn broadly just at the mere mention of their name, but at least…