Heartfelt thanks

Words count. No one knows that better than a nation with a treaty as its founding document. Litera scripta manet. The written word endures.

That holds true, too, for the Listener, which for more than 80 years has proudly borne witness to the vital events of this country’s life and been at the heart of its most important national conversations.

Words matter, too, with even the simplest of documents. As I write this, my final editor’s letter to you before stepping down, I have on my desk a handwritten letter that Michael King, the eminent historian and author of , sent me on learning I was to be the editor of the . It was a daunting