I've been a serious Smiths/Morrissey fan since 1983. I was a pen pal with Morrissey for a short time in 1984, this unfortunately only lasted for a month. I suppose he became too famous and busy, in the end my letters never reached him, so it all ended. Please see the 3 attached files which are the scans of the letter and postcards that I received from Morrissey in 1984. I hope you and all people looking at them find them interesting.

I can't describe the feeling of receiving the 1st letter from him, nobody ever believes me when I tell them that he once wrote to me. I'll give you a brief description of the subject matter of each item.

Morrissey letter (scan)

My initial letter enquired on when 'This night has opened my eyes' would be released commercially, it's only airing was from the John Peel sessions. I also mentioned how much I liked 'Girl afraid', which was of course one of the B sides on 'Heaven knows I'm miserable now'. I really like the way he ended the letter with 'Not happy/not sad'

Morrissey postcard 1 (scan)

I questioned Morrissey on his famous 'James Dean is not dead' book (I also had an unhealthy fixation on Mr Dean). Also mentioned was the 'James Dean - The first American teenager' documentary. I also asked whether my Smiths album and single covers could be signed if I sent them to him. I also mentioned that I'd recently heard 'Rusholme ruffians' from the latest John Peel session, but I wasn't sure of how to spell it, hence the correction.

Morrissey postcard 2 (scan)

I received all of my covers back - all signed by the man himself! He goes on to explain why the remaining Smiths didn't sign them. I sent him a cassette of a rare James Dean documentary that he hadn't heard before, he refers to listening to it on a train journey to Manchester. I also asked him if he had an extremely rare book on James Dean by an author called Bill Bast. Finally, I asked him whether a replica the famous red jacket worn by Dean could be bought in London.

I really wish my short-lived contact with Morrissey had lasted a lot longer, but it gives me immense pleasure that I was able to have the contact and actually expand his James Dean collection.

I met Morrissey directly after The Smiths set at the 10th summer festival at the G-Mex centre in Manchester in 1986. Very nervously, I introduced myself and he put his index fingers to his temples and after a few seconds thought, he simply said 'James Dean'. I remember it like it was yesterday, to think that he remembered someone from 2 years previous was amazing, I just wish I'd had a camera with me. I'll obviously never forget it and the letter and postcards will go to my grave with me.