Tom Hanks is not wrong about the ding

Raspberries & rice crispies

A meagre banana

My granny had a blue typewriter, a heavy old thing with a plastic cover that soon became mine. I still remember the heady thrill of bashing key after key, ink blotting paper, as you made your percussive advance towards the end of the line and that delicious ding, then the flick of your wrist as you returned the carriage to the start.

This was what writers did. Sure-fingered, they struck at floating keys, smudging out stories as the carriage lurched forwards towards the ding and scrape -- another line done. They tore their pages out from the typewriter in frazzle-haired frenzies, and crumpled them into smudgy balls, then began again: thump, thump, ding, whir; thump, thump, ding, whir. On and on.

I suppose then, it was only a matter of time before this happened: world, welcome the typewriter app. Somehow that Tom Hanks did it makes it better…