MANY people I know like to read Hear All Sides and often let me know what they think of the letters.

There have been a couple of occasions, though, when people have got the surnames wrong.

For instance, I get told that “Des Moore” and “Hugh Pinder” have written in, but their surnames are More and Pender.

Someone once called me “Chris Wardle”, but my surname is Wardell, the “dell” part being pronounced heavily.

It can be quite hard at times pronouncing people’s surnames correctly. In a way, I should be quite grateful as I have been called a lot worse over the years.

The words “idiot” and “pest”

have been aimed at me on this very page, but those are words that I am used to. Most of my former teachers called me them when I suffered from spasms of lunacy in the classroom.

I’d much rather be a cheerful idiot than a boring, fuddy-duddy any day. It’s not a crime to be slightly bonkers, folks, and forgive me if you think that I have sinned in any way with my manic letters, as I am just a normal, down-to-earth chap, who often drinks in town with a chap called Boris Danavic.

Christopher Wardell, Darlington.