Sir, – Maureen Gaffney (Arts Books, December 31st) wrote an insightful review of Dr Paul Ryan's recent book Asking Angela Macnamara: An intimate History of Irish Lives.
Some readers have mistakenly thought that Ryan's book is about me. Rather it is a much wider, scholarly book which sets out to map the social changes in the period in which I wrote my Sunday Presscolumn.
I have written a memoir of those years entitled Yours Sincerely, published in 2003 by Veritas Publishers. In the interest of confidentiality, I'm glad to inform readers who have contacted me recently that all confidential letters have been shred since my retirement from this work.
Yes, we have all changed since those years and yes, with hindsight I can see how differently – but still with Christian faith – I would approach the column now. No one would be interested! Thank you to Maureen Gaffney for understanding how it was. – Yours, etc,