170 letters for 170 years of The Age. You know me as ‘Peter Johns, Sorrento’

I have been an Age subscriber for more than 60 years. I started when I was 25 years old and had just moved to Melbourne from Bendigo as a newlywed.

After being brought up by parents whose choice of newspaper had largely been decided by how easy the crossword was in the other masthead, we wanted a paper with more details and background on the news of the day.

Johns pictured with some of his 170 letters published in The Age.Credit: Justin McManus

However, it was a few decades later, when I married for the second time to another avid Age reader, that I first began contributing letters to The Age.

My first letter was published in 2006. I had been invited to a political party fundraiser by my wife’s sister, where I was introduced to another guest who proudly announced to me that he had been a member of the Liberal Party for 50 years.

At the time, I had thought that was a rather disappointing introduction. When I got home, it occurred to me that he measured his importance by the length of his membership, instead of his party’s achievements or reflections on their mistakes.

This inspired me to write a letter suggesting that people like that, racing along, “must be the blinkered faithful” – and that, sadly, all political parties have them. “Thank heaven for the swinging voter who creates policy change,” I wrote. When it was printed, I was surprised and felt very excited that I had a voice in such a paper as The Age. I was hooked.

I continued to send in more letters, and I was getting around 10 printed a year. I was staggered! I felt my thoughts were only mildly interesting observations that may be of interest to some, so I kept them short and punchy before the reader became bored. As a result, they were all published in the paper’s right-hand column “And another thing”.

Over time, I became used to seeing my name “Peter Johns, Sorrento” in the letters page, but then for the first time I was published with a Ron Tandberg cartoon. This was a surprise I could never have expected. To be honoured with a cartoon by such a legendary artist was colossal. Having my articles selected for the headline cartoon now became one of my new goals.

In total, I’ve had about 170 letters published, including 12 with Ron Tandberg and four with Matt Golding cartoons. I have kept my printed letters in a diary, but those published with a cartoon were proudly displayed in frames of all shapes and sizes, old and new, on shelves and walls throughout my home.

I will submit a letter on almost anything that upsets or amuses me if I think there may be something of interest for others. I have voted for both sides of politics in my life, but rather than repeat their messages, I like to spot connections and disconnections across articles I read in The Age.

Over the years, I have used inspiration provided from many politicians, including Tony Abbott, Steve Bracks, Barnaby Joyce, Kevin Rudd and others. Lately, extreme politics here and overseas, climate change and football have given me lots of ideas.

Whilst I have an interest in the contributions of others in our letter-writing community, I don’t look for particular names. Rather, I enjoy being a part of a shared voice in the Melbourne institution, The Age. It is still a thrill after about 170 published letters.

Two years ago, my wife died, and I moved into aged care in Vermont. I still subscribe and love reading The Age, and I’ve had two or three letters published as “Peter Johns, Vermont”. It’s a new place and a new identity, but my family and friends still refer to me when visiting as “Peter Johns, Sorrento”!

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