Once, in primary school, a girl in the year above spat three half-eaten prunes onto my plate. At that moment, Miss Fitzpatrick walked past. She pointed to the semi-digested prunes, and reminded me of school dinner rule number one: clean plates. In vain did I protest and say the prunes were not mine. Miss Fitzpatrick would not listen."Eat your prunes, Jonathan." I eventually obeyed.
Understandably, this incident scarred me for life and I've always wished I'd been able to tell Miss Fitzpatrick what I thought of her.
Now, thanks to Jackie Hooper's blog, The Things You Would Have Said , I can. Started in 2009, it asks strangers to write down the words they had left unsaid and it has struck a chord, with pages of messages.
One ("the other woman") apologised to a wife for sleeping with her husband. Someone wrote to their horse ("always so much more than 'just' a horse"); another to their recently deceased dog. A collection of the best has just appeared as a book, and the topic has been trending on Twitter (#iwishihadsaid), where, confined to 140 characters, the letters are even more potent.
Use the comments below to tell us what you wish you had said or email g2feedback@guardian.co.uk. And to Miss Fitzpatrick: you did me no favours.
