Ever since childhood I have read the daily newspaper. My earliest memories are of my father buying The News Chronicle. It was a short-lived lifespan for a daily paper being introduced in 1930 and ceased publication in 1960. When I married, my father-in-law was a printer on The Daily Mirror. We thus had this as a daily read alongside any other paper we chose to buy.

Today I am an avid reader of the I newspaper. Whilst one can get all the latest news on the television or mobile phone it does not compensate for the daily read. Our paper is now delivered by a charming paperboy who has found a useful source of income. As a youngster I did a Sunday newspaper round that took nearly two hours as virtually everybody in those days had a paper.

The newspaper industry has a fascinating history, with the first daily in England published in 1702. It was called The Daily Courant and was just one sheet of paper with two columns of news on the front and adverts on the back. The oldest remaining newspaper is a German paper published since 1650. Our first daily paper at one penny was the Daily Telegraph published since 1855. By the time of my youth in the 1950s there were seven daily papers. Our own Tavistock Gazette has itself an interesting history founded in 1857. Its battle with the Tavistock Times was resolved with a merger in 1986.

The daily paper is not just about news. This is depressing enough. The paper offers much more than just news. It enables us to keep our minds active by doing the various crosswords and puzzles. Doing the crossword together over morning coffee is a chance to work together on the basis that two heads are better than one. It is a good social time when the conversation can break away from the usual comments like what is for dinner tonight? Do we need to go to the shops? and is the washing basket full yet again? It is also a time when I have to recognise that in my household I am second best at crosswords. Cryptic ones leave me totally lost whilst my better half thrives on them. I do make a recovery in the general knowledge section but have massive blank spots on pop music and films.

Papers offer in depth articles on a range of topics. They all have a particular bias but once you recognise this you can read with your eyes wide open. In a West End show there is a song which read as follows: “It must be true because I read it in the paper didn’t you?” We know this is not the case but it does not diminish from the enjoyment of the daily read.

Such is my addiction that on my frequent visits to France I still buy a daily newspaper. It is frequently the local one. It tests the old brainbox.