Thank you, my Mirror family.. you never let me darn

WRITING for the Mirror is like being part of a big family.

My final Christmas mail to the Old White Bear, Cross Hills, brought some really heart-warming cards and letters.

Patricia Darby, of Blackpool, thanks me for a “very refreshing, no-nonsense column” and coupled seasonal wishes with hopes that our grandaughter Robyn will be on the mend soon.

Bill Roper, 91, of Watford, sent his greetings and welcomed that grandaughter Robyn “was cured and home for Christmas – what a great gift!” Thanks for those kind words, both of you, though I must point out that Robyn, 18 months, is our great-grandaughter, which makes me feel old.

And her cancer isn’t cured but the medical signs are encouraging, all credit to the doctors and nurses caring for her at

Leeds General Infirmary. A correspondent who didn’t give his name but signed with a flourish of his initials, says: “The first thing I noticed when I started my apprenticeship was the person I had been put with was reading the Daily Mirror at brew time.

“I have been buying the Mirror every day since, 60 years.”

He enclosed “a pair of socks for you, then you don’t have to be darning over Christmas”.

What socks, too: Jeff Banks men’s thermals, billed as “innovative knitting technology with extra cushion”. They must have cost a bob or two, mystery man, so thanks a lot.

I won’t ever have to darn them, though I don’t mind mending others. It’s therapeutic, as well as money-saving.

Funny, I write about politics for 30 years in the broadsheet papers, and nobody takes any notice.

But write about darning socks and little Robyn, and the Mirror family responds full-heartedly. Ain’t life grand.