I find letters incredibly difficult to write.

Given my book-fag background, this might be surprising. And yet I love to write them. I love to receive them, too, of course. But I love to write them even more. Handwritten letters are like gifts, or maybe like kissing.

But I am crippled by performance anxiety. I want this thing to be perfect, because I want it to be scrutinised. Letters are more personal, more secret, than talking, and each word has to be perfectly chosen because the recipient is going to hold it, and look at it, and know me better for having received it. You can't re-read a phonecall. Good letters should make you cry, regardless of their content.

Sometimes, I write letters that I'm never going to send. I love doing this, too, because then I feel like a fey, secret-keeping heroine.

One day, letters are going to come back into fashion, along with personalised calling-cards, fancy hats and elegant three-storey terraces. On that day I will be Queen of Correspondence.