ABSTRACT
I never actually met Nina Coltart in person. Nevertheless, I came to regard her as one of my most intimate friends. She was, for me, a role model and a mentor, ever since 1994, when our correspondence first began, up to her tragic death in June 1997. Even now, when so many years have passed, I can feel her powerful influence on me and on my life. I also have reason to believe that in the last two and a half years of her life she considered me a close friend and came truly to enjoy our correspondence. In the beginning, she ended her letters formally: “Kind regards. Yours sincerely, Nina Coltart”. One of her last letters ends, “Yours ever, with much love, Nina”.
