IT WAS good to see that one of the staples of this newspaper is now into his eighth decade.

Jun 4 2008 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

I speak, of course, of the ever-readable Geoffrey Bulmer of Billingham, a man who has kept the letters page in business since the late 1950s. Looking back, there is not, it seems, any subject on which he has not voiced a view. He is of the left, but can see and appreciate the arguments of the right. He comes from academia, but sees issues not through the tinted spectacles of the lecture theatre, but from the standpoint on the man or woman on the Billingham omnibus.

So, given his devotion to the correspondence columns, how does he structure that devotion?

I visualise a typical day in the Bulmer household. Early morning rising is the norm, with time to catch up on the essentials of the news of the day from the ever-excellent Radio 4 Today programme. Then the heavy thud at the front door heralds the arrival of the daily newspaper diet. His reading is catholic. As well as the UK broadsheets, there are a sprinkling of red-top tabloids and those foreign papers he deems important to keep up with - the Washington Post, Pravda, Le Monde and the Frankfurter Allgemeine.

The entire morning is devoted to a thorough perusal of these papers, helped along by ample lashings of toast and hot coffee.

Towards midday the possible subjects of the next missive get whittled down to a short list of six or seven - but the final choice crucially depends on what the Gazette is saying. The Gazette duly delivered, the final choice is made.

The serious work then begins. The creamiest writing paper and the thickest fountain pen are required for this task - no cheap biros and definitely no use of such new-fangled inventions as word processors or e-mail. Only the very best can suffice.

Draft after draft is made and then discarded. Small grammatical changes alternate with fresh paragraphs. A conscious effort is made to see that the letter is both up-to date and relevant to the Gazette’s readership, and that no criticism is made of anyone without being backed up by cited facts. In the same sense, undue praise is usually avoided as that can convey the suspicion of favouritism.

Accuracy is paramount. A badly written letter, he knows, can easily get it wrong. Print an inaccuracy, misspell a name or omit a vital piece of information and you not only can distort the truth and misinform the public, but you also damage your own credibility.

The letter draft finally finished, the ‘top copy’ is entrusted to a crispy cream vellum envelope. The missive is then entrusted to the Royal Mail, and the following day it arrives for the editor’s perusal, and, ultimately, for the delight of us all.

- Park Bencher