Letters - the magic is not going anywhere
Last month children from across the world wrote letters to a very special someone - Santa Claus.
Maybe they also tried to WhatsApp him a Present Emoji beside a Puppy Emoji, or send him a Snapchat with a badly drawn on halo in the attempt at being exempt from the naughty list... a picture speaks a thousand words right? Well, perhaps, but in the case of this Christmas tradition, a letter cannot be beaten. Even celebs write letters to Father Christmas! (Albeit not to ask for this year's must have toy).
Whilst modern technology has brought us emails, texts and a whole host of social media platforms, the letter has not died out. Its use has declined, but it is by no means obsolete.
As one of the earliest written forms of communication, letters have high historical, literary and, in many cases, personal value. Partly because of this, published letters - both originals and those written specifically to become books - can bring a wealth of excellent reading and listening.
With this in mind, we've compiled for you some letter related highlights from the Listening Books catalogue.
First up, Tony Benn's 'Letters to My Grandchildren'
Tony Benn was a British politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for 47 years between the 1950 and 2001 general elections. From his parliamentary retirement in 2001 he spent time touring in a one-man show, as well as speaking at Glastonbury Festival and featuring on television and radio.
Benn was a prolific diarist, allowing him to look back at his life in great detail, and 'Letters to My Grandchildren' was his way of passing on all that he has learnt.
In his words:
Certainly at my age I have learned an enormous amount from the study of history - not so much from the political leaders of the time, but from those who struggled for justice and explained the world in a way that shows the continuity of history.
Normality for any individual is what the world is like on the day they are born. The normality of the young is wholly different from the normality of their grandparents. There may be lessons to be learned which could help the next generation to avoid mistakes their parents and grandparents made.
'Letters to My Grandchildren' is Tony Benn's way of looking at the history of his life side by side with the future for those who will live through it.
Our next book is 'Dear Austen' by Nina Bawden.
This letter, penned by Nina Bawden, is to her husband Austen - and is written in real and tragic circumstances.
On May 10th 2002, Nina Bawden and her husband Austen Kark boarded the 12:45 from Kings Cross to Cambridge and settled down with their books and papers. A few minutes later the train derailed. Seven people were killed and 76 badly hurt. Nina Bawden was gravely injured and Austen was killed instantly.
Writing years later she gives an honest account of the incident and the aftermath. Bawden tells of how she and other survivors have tried to make sense of what happened in the absence of any public enquiry or resolution to this tragedy.
Finally, we couldn't talk about letters without mentioning Carole Hayman's and Lou Wakefield's 'Ladies of Letters' series.
We'll let the authors introduce the ladies:
On July 4th 1985, Irene and Vera were born in a handwritten letter left on a kitchen table in Clapham, south west London...
Lou Wakefield and Carole Hayman, two friends who are now older than they ever expected to be, decided to play a game of written improvisation. Just for the fun of it, they would correspond as the sixty-something Irene Spencer and Vera Small, but with one unbreakable rule: they could never discuss it in person.
Irene was first off the mark with a letter to Vera. Her daughter Lesley had recently married, and Irene wrote to thank her new friend for the thank you letter she’d received in response to the wedding, where they had met for the first time. She admits that she’d enjoyed Vera’s company and, since they live so far away from each other, suggests they become penpals.
And that’s where the trouble began...
From her very first letter of reply, Vera threw Irene into a spin by saying that ‘Lesley is a lovely girl, and Keith seems a pleasant chap.’
Irene, and her alter ego, Lou, had thought that Vera was one of Keith’s relations, whereas Vera and Carole knew better - Vee had been staying with a mutual friend, Betty, who Irene had hired to mastermind the catering, so Vera had rolled up her sleeves to help. The Salmon Mousse and the Blue Cheese Quiche had been hers.
This small misunderstanding right at the beginning of their relationship set the tone for years of crossed wires and bitter banter between them.
But so much stood in their way. For a start, shortly after giving birth to them, Lou and Carole got on with their busy separate working lives, and the Ladies languished for two long years with nary a peep from either. But as luck would have it, their first guardian angel came flying to their rescue, in the person of Sue Townsend, creator of Adrian Mole.
A friend of both the writers, Sue read the letters so far and demanded to read more. ‘This is a book!’ she cried, and thus, eventually, it came to pass.
Since then, the Ladies of Letters has become not only a series of well-loved books, but has featured on BBC Radio 4, and had its own television series.
They can be found in the Listening Books catalogue voiced by Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge.
What do you think of these recommendations? Have you got any favourite letters or letter collections? We'd love to know!
And, now your Christmas wishlist requests have (hopefully) materialised into presents, there are many different ways to say thank you. Perhaps an expertly filtered photo of the gift uploaded to Instagram accompanied by the caption "*Smiley Face Emoji* *Heart Eyes Emoji* #bestfriend #bestpresentever" would do the job? Or you could be even more adorable and write them a letter.
If you'd like explore letters further you might enjoy these links:
The BBC speaks to Simon Garfield, author of 'To The Letter', a history of endangered letter writing.
Journalist Andrew Hill asks the question, Can Letter Writing Survive?
And, to leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling, here are some adorable real letters to Santa Claus written by children.
This post was written by Holly Newson.
Picture credit: "Tony Benn2" by I, Isujosh.
