Most of us want to be remembered in one way or another after we have left this life, want to be seen as a force for good, or as an influence, or merely as a person who has done the right thing and not wasted their short time on this planet. How that recognition comes…

I was quite old before finding any relationship between the word – or idea – Hope and religion, and that relationship was only made evident to me by someone who insisted that there could never be any form of Hope without belief, without religion, without a strict, dogmatic look at life. I discarded the idea…

It is true to say that letter writing is a challenge. In fact, most areas of writing are a challenge in our modern society, which has been caught up with these electronic communication trends, with abbreviations, and with all manner of illustrations – comic characters or whatever – now used to symbolise feelings and intended…

There are times, to take the idea of differences between the manner in which we live and our present surroundings or environment, when I feel as if there are no advantages to living in the Free World, as so many people care to describe it. We have, as I am sure you appreciate, many other…

One of the greatest shocks I had in my life, following my vehicle accident, was to discover that things would not continue in such a smooth and happy manner in which they had previously adorned life and brought pleasure. What seems to be a very slight event – a simple fall, for some, is hardly…

History, as we all know, is written by the victors. Every single thing that we read has been put together by someone who has, perhaps, their own agenda, or a slant on history – or any other subject – that they wish to promote. Sometimes it is to balance matters out, sometimes to settle a…

You have to bear in mind that some people have two characters: the open character that everyone sees and accepts, and the hidden character which is their real self. Actors, through their chosen trade, create public characters which all of their viewers get to see, get to sympathise with, get to accept as being the…

I’m surprised that you replied to that religious fanatic, and can say that I most certainly would not have done so. There are some people who are so set in their ways, so sure of themselves, that they do not see anything to the left or right of where they are going, are blinded to…

Sometimes even the best laid plans, ones which you have set in concrete and definitely wish to stick to, have to be changed according to sudden or unexpected need. And so it is, rarely admittedly, with my time: I make plans and set myself a routine, a series of deeds I wish to perform, a…

There is a phenomenal advantage which I have, and which I sometimes forget when writing to people around the world: access. You mention in your letter that I am well-read which, to all intents and purposes, is true, but only because I have access to any number of books at very short notice and, of…