I was going to flag this up a few days ago, but somehow other things got in the way. I’m quite sure that I have described on here before how, when I was growing up, it was a family tradition of ours to drink tea and eat chocolate in my parent’s bedroom every weekend morning. I remember those times with great fondness and warmth. When my brothers and I were small, T ad C time was a matter of playing of course, but when we got a bit older, on Sunday mornings Dad used to put on Letter From America for us to listen to. That is how I was introduced to the late, great Alistair Cooke: I loved listening to him – he was always so well informed, at once invoking an American world which seemed so similar yet so different.

I remembered those Sunday mornings when I came across this last week. The beeb have put an archive of cook’s letters on their website, presumably to coincide with the American election. What Cooke, the most unflappable and level-headed of commentators, would have made of Obama and Romney and the current deep divisions in American society I cannot say, but I would have loved to hear his thoughts on it.

As it is, though, this archive stands as a record of a man’s reflections of American life spanning over fifty years: Mr cook recorded them every week from 1946 until his death in 2004. That in itself fills me with awe. It occurs to me that Cooke’s letters aren’t all that dissimilar from blog entries, causing me to reflect on my own activity as a blogger: on Wednesday Steve told me how he always tried to read my entries. I was flattered, of course, and his words spurred me on to keep writing. I do try to keep it up, write regularly and vary my subjects, just as, I suppose, Alistair Cooke did. I suppose I just ramble on about whatever I find interesting on any given day, but if I have but a fraction of his ability to captivate people I would be a very happy man. Mind you, I also find myself wondering if I will be able to keep my blog going for fifty-eight years: if Mr. Cooke could do it I can certainly give it a go!