Dear Liam and Francesca,

The bank holiday’s over now but I guess that you’ve probably got your half-term holidays now. I didn’t realise that it was half term until Uncle Joachim asked if we wanted to take Thomas out one day. We’re going out on Friday. We don’t know where we’re going yet but Grandma and I are looking forward to it. Perhaps one day we four can all go out somewhere. That would be nice for us. I hope that you still remember us and would like to go out somewhere.

I did some more gardening today and I’ve nearly cleared out the bits around the pear trees so it’s looking a bit better but there’s still a lot to do.

I spent a lot of the day on Thomas’ web site. We’re now putting the world cup on it and I’ve had a few problems with my computer. Anyway, it’s done now.

You’ll both be tucked up safe and warm so we’ll say, night, night, sleep tonight and have some really nice dreams,
All our love, from,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

You two having a great weekend. I hope so. I didn’t wake up this morning until 11 o’clock and Grandma was already up by then. It was a really busy day yesterday and I’m still very tired.

I did a bit of gardening today. I was weeding the bit of garden in front of the shed. Your strawberries are doing really well. I was quite surprised to see them there when I pulled the weeds out. There are some nice big strawberries on the plants but they’re still green. I also pulled up the rest of the carrots that were left over. I was going to eat them but they’d become very hard and stringy and you just couldn’t do anything with them. I should have picked them earlier.

Well, hope you’re sleeping well, we’re off to bed now so,
Night, night from,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Liam and Francesca,

We hope that you had a really, really nice birthday, Liam. We were thinking of you all day, what you were doing, who came to your party, what presents you got. We would have loved to send you a present but we can’t because we don’t know where you are. We did email a card to your Mummy and Daddy and hope that you got these. Perhaps your next birthday, we can be there too. We hope so.

I’ve been playing again today at a gig. This time it was near Southend-on-sea. It was the wedding of a friend of Rob who plays in the band. It was very different from last night. There were just the wedding guests there and it was a nice small, concert. Everyone enjoyed it. I’m really tired now as I drove there and back.

Night, night to the big boy who’s now FOUR YEARS old and to the big sister who’s now got a four-year old brother. We hope that we don’t miss any more of your birthdays. we just hope and hope.

Night, night then and we’ll talk tomorrow,
Lots and lots and lots of love from,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

If you look at the time on this letter, you’ll find that it’s really, really late. I played at a gig tonight with the TSMB and Grandma came along. It was a really great audience. I think that it was probably about the best one we’ve ever had. Grandma was in the audience and she really enjoyed it too.

The place where we played was in a venue located under the arches of the railway at London Bridge. It’s quite a huge place, really. You’d never believe that there was such a big place there. It was a masked ball where everyone had to wear masks and nearly everyone wore fancy dress. There were all sorts of clothes there but a lot of ball gowns. Francesca, you would have loved to see some of the dresses there.

It’s really late now, so we’re off to bed so,
Sleep tight, both of you,
We love you lots and lots,
Night, night from Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Liam and Francesca,

I hope as always that you’re OK. I spent some time making your birthday card today, Liam. It’s funny that I tell you that before I’ve sent it but I know that you probably won’t read these letters for a long time. I write them every day as if you’re sitting somewhere reading them. It’s a bit silly really but it’s what I want to believe. One day I hope that you will read them. I guess by then these will just be the ramblings of an old Grandad.

I hope that you’ll excuse me doing this but I have to try and think that I can talk to you somehow, even if I’m deluding myself.

Today, I fixed my tambourine so that I can hold it a bit better and not hurt my wrist. We’ve got a gig tomorrow night and it will be quite late when we get in. We’re being filmed by a Japanese TV crew for some documentary so you might see me in it one day.

That’s all for tonight, hope you’re both having sweet dreams,
We’ll talk tomorrow, bye for now, from
Grandma and Grandad and lots of love from both of us. xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

Do you know, my dears, it gets harder and harder to know what to say to you as it gets longer and longer since we last saw you. All I can do is to tell you that we’re always thinking of you and we do that every single day. If we never see you again, I just want you to know that we think of you every day, all day and that, back here in Colindale, you have a Grandma and Grandad who love you so so much and miss you like crazy.

I hope that you don’t think that because we don’t get in touch with you, it means that we don’t care. It’s really not like that at all, it’s just that we can’t get in touch with you any other ways, except through these pages.

What did I do today? I went to the university to talk about another book I’m writing. It’s going to be about a toy called Logiblocs. Ithink that it’s the sort of thing that you’d love to play with. I was thinking of you when we were discussing it.

Grandma went to The Royal Opera House on a tour around the backstage. She saw them making the scenery and saw the dancers rehearse for the ballet “Cinderella”. She said it all was very interesting and she enjoyed it very much. It reminded her of you, Francesca, when you did your ballet performances.

It’s a bit late as I’ve been to a rehearsal tonight so we’re off to bed now,
Night, night and sleep tight,
We’ll talk tomorrow,
All our Love,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Liam and Francesca,

Today, I went down town to buy my new sax. Guess what. They didn’t have the one I wanted in the shop. I’d rung up first to ask and they said that they always kept it in stock but, when I got there, someone told me they’d sold it last Saturday. It was really disappointing.

The good thing was that I had a blow on lots of different instruments and I’m much surer of which one I want to buy. I can’t wait until they phone me to tell me that they’ve got one in stock. I hope that you hear your old Grandad playing his sax one day while I can still play. I don’t think that you’ll ever hear me playing the trumpet again as I play it less and less now. It makes me sad that I can’t play the trumpet so well now and even sadder that you won’t be there for the last few times I play.

Who knows what will happen in the future? We can just hope that, one day, we will be allowed to meet again. You both know where we are, that’s no secret.

Ah well, sleep tight my dears, dream sweet dreams and we’ll dream of you,
Night night and masses of love, from,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

Hope you’ve had a good start to the week and are looking forward to the rest of the week.

I’ve been to the university today for a meeting. I took a walk through the workshops to say hello to some of my old friends there. It’s nice to meet people from the past. They’re all very friendly and its great to hear and see what they’re all doing. It reminds me of when I used to work on those same workshops. I did a lot of my research there and all those technicians were really helpful.

I wonder if you still like making things, Francesca and and have you started to do the same, Liam. Perhaps you have caught that from your old Grandad.

We’re off to bed now, hope you’re sleeping safely,
We love you lots and lots but I know that I don’t have to tell you that,
Night, night,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Liam and Francesca,

Hope you’ve both had a great weekend.

We were playing today on a bandstand in Parliament Hill Fields which overlooks London. The weather was fantastic and the park was really, really full. When we got there, it was quite difficult to park and we had to drive around for ages before we were lucky and found a space.

There were lots and lots of children in the park and some came up onto the bandstand to listen. There was just one thing missing there today. Guess who? I kept thinking of you whenever I saw children around – and that was all the time. I miss you all the time, you know but some times I miss you so, so much. Will you ever come to see me play again? I do hope so. I dream of the day when I’ll look up and there you are. I’ll just have to keep dreaming, hope it’s not for too long.

We’re off to bed now, so, sweet dreams,
Talk to you tomorrow,
Miss you lots and lots and lots,
Love Grandma and Grandad xxxx

Dear Francesca and Liam,

Hope you’ve had a good Saturday. It’s been really nice weather where we are hope it’s been good where you are.

We’ve nothing to report here. I’ve been at home all day, working on my paper and practicing my sax.

We’re off to bed now, so sleep tight,
Night, night,
Grandma and Grandad xxxx