As if I didn't have enough of blethering in the classroom, I feel the need to blether here too. And all this shortly after attending a wonderful book launch about silence, "Il Paradosso del Silenzio" a collection of essays edited by Nicoletta Polla-Mattiot. I was used to philosophical/cultural meetings being a battleground of specialist against specialist, to the point where I was tempted to write a TV programme, "When Academics Attack"; so it was inspiring to see an intellectual gathering at the service of what is, or should be, a common experience - the various modes of silence.

I learnt that deafness associated with old age exists only in noisy places, unlike loss of sight, which is universal. I learnt about a village in Saudi Arabia whose main industry is to grow a special kind of rose from which they make perfume, 17 kilos a year, all of which is given exclusively to the king. I discovered that there is such a thing as a' metaphorologist' and she lives and teaches in Switzerland. But perhaps the most gratifying thing was, perhaps contrary to the will of the organisers, the explosion of conversation at the end, the desire everyone had simultaneously to join in, to share their experiences of silence. Some of these experiences can be found at www.ascoltareilsilenzio.org, for the Italian speakers amongst you. Any thoughts about silence in English can be left here!