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It’s a sad but inescapable fact that pensioners write more letters to the press than any other age group, and while there may be nothing innately wrong with bemoaning the lack of disabled toilet facilities on Snowdon or appealing for knitwear to be sold in aid of East European goat sanctuaries, communicating these thoughts to a wider public may be indicative of a deeper malaise in the writer’s life.
Nothing illustrates this point more clearly than the case of Ivor Waterman of Penmaenpool, who wrote 138 separate letters to the South Wales Argus during one week in October 2002 – shortly after his house was demolished by a gas explosion, his prize winning racing pigeons were eaten by a neighbour and his wife of 43 years revealed that she was really a stevedore called Norman.