Your piece about Valentine's Day was interesting (Be my anti-Valentine: how we fell in love with romantic counter-culture, News, February 12). However, what no one nowadays seems to remember is that when I was young (I'm now over 80) the whole point about a "Valentine" was that it was anonymous. It wasn't from boyfriend to girlfriend, husband to wife, or vice versa.

It was sent by a secret admirer to the object of his admiration. This seems to have been completely lost in the present-day practice of sending messages of love to your current partner, which is something quite different.

William Whitson

Bathgate