There is a phrase in German, often used when a general discussion awaits, or when someone just wants to ramble on about anything in conversation, and it can be translated as talking about God and the World which, I think you’ll agree, seems to cover practically anything anyone could possibly want to talk about rather…

I was almost inclined to begin my letter ‘Dear open-minded, sexually confused vegetarian’ and continue through a long letter about all manner of things before signing off as an ‘open-minded, non-sexually confused vegetarian’ which might have amused some, but would not necessarily be appropriate without a good deal of explanation. The explanation would have had…

One of the hardest things to come to terms with is when someone simply disappears without a word of explanation, and it makes little difference if this person is someone we personally know, or merely someone we have met in a virtual sense but never personally. Every relationship we build up brings a certain intimacy,…

I was intrigued by one of the things you originally wrote as a form of introduction; it has stuck in my mind ever since and brought many images and reflections of past times to the fore during the last few weeks. You wrote: I am someone who values time, therefore I will not take it…

I was quite moved to read your opening words, as you introduced yourself to the assembled masses and admitted that, despite your advanced years, you have seen nothing of our world, that you have always lived in the same town, with the same surroundings, the same neighbours, the same friends, classmates and acquaintances. It brought…

I was intrigued by the idea, which you propose, of having a penfriend from every single country in the world and wondered how anyone would be able to achieve this. You know, of course, that there are either one hundred and ninety-five or ninety-six countries recognised at present – the difference being between whether Taiwan…

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…