I am not typing these words. My amanuensis is. Until last night I did not know I had an amanuensis. I learned about it from that ever-dependable source of information, a bloke in the pub. Fine word amanuensis. It derives from the Latin servus a manu, meaning literally a slave from the hand, less literally one who takes dictation. John Milton, author of  Paradise Lost , went blind at the age of 43. Thereafter he dictated his endless verses to amanuenses, prime among whom were his daughters, poor things. So there I was yesterday evening, leaning on the bar and bemoaning the state of the world as is the right of every male at the end of his seventh decade.…