This morning, when going through my customary routine checks over the sites I  frequent, I was both astounded and delighted to see that Jeffrey Ford, one of my favourite writer’s and an an absolutely splendid fellow, had posted an entry on his blog containing some very warm words in regard our little site here. I owe a lot to Jeff already – he was an enormous help to me back in the days of PH-UK. He would give me regular support in helping contact authors that I was interested in interviewing, and would never seem to tire of my amatuerish ways of going about it. I would get regular emails offering further support, or merely remarking that he had enjoyed a particular article. I always counted myself extremely fortunate to have had such an esteemed benefactor helping me behind the scenes, as it were, and it looks as though that his generosity hasn’t diminished a single iota. I hadn’t spoken to Ford for maybe a couple of years, and, merely wishing to know that he was well, I sent him a mail expressing as much, to which I received a prompt reply that also contained an offer that blew me away. I quote from the reply: “Drop me your address, and I’ll send you a paperback of The Shadow Year and The Drowned Life”. To the uninformed, these two books were two publication’s of Ford’s that I had unfortunately missed, partly due to me being out of the loop, and partly down to me having something of a falling out with my books after the horrendous closing months of working in the book shop. Ford astounded me with such an out of the blue gesture, and as a byproduct is partially responsible for my rekindled interest in writing on the internet. Jeffrey Ford, my hat (if I wore one) goes off to you!