My wife sits in the chair of a late evening, and looks across at me as – work finished at last – I read the paper, watch the TV and wander around Twitterland. She is bemused first of all by this multi-tasking of which we males are supposed to be incapable, but secondly by the whole idea of interacting with perfect strangers. Now, my wife is not shy. She will talk to anyone, anywhere – although we did go to Brittany on holiday once and with her having no French or Breton it was the quietest holiday we have ever had. Whenever approached by a local, she would disappear, once hiding behind some tractors in a car park leaving me at the mercy of two excitable Breton old tractor enthusiasts telling me all about the rally the next day. Actually, the rally was great fun once I had extricated my better half from behind the vintage vehicles. Anyway, as I say, she will talk to anyone, whether or not she knows them – but she doesn’t get “talking” to people I don’t know on Twitter.

So why do I do it? What’s the point when the day is already busy enough and filled with people?

Well, I guess mostly because I am fascinated by people. I am, at heart, despite my very public work, quite shy but still I relish finding out about people, hearing their stories, learning from them. The great thing about Twitter – and I am a relative newcomer to it – is the variety of people one meets and the even wider variety of their interests. Perhaps not all human life is here but certainly enough to make Twitter an interesting, informative, funny, challenging, comforting, encouraging and even, sometimes, downright difficult place to be.

I may never meet most of the people I follow on Twitter but I enjoy their virtual company.

So thanks for being you, my Twitter friends and keep on tweeting.

@pronterjools