In mourning
In the 19th century, it was customary to use black-bordered paper and envelopes to inform someone of a death. Here...
A hospital for poets
The 18th century German poet Friedrich Hölderlin considers philosophy as a possible cure - or at least refuge - for...
This is the world
Keats was one of the most life-loving people you could hope to meet, grasping with all his force every chance...
A beautiful flowing hand
The American chef Julia Child describes how her husband approached letter-writing in an age when trans-Atlantic telephone calls were prohibitively...
Letters better late than never
The war-time life-line of letters is summed up here. Their erratic arrival in a region of Italy where the battle...
A real craving of nature
Branwell Bronte, the sister-eclipsed son in a family of six, caused them and his father great heartache through alcoholism and...
Letters unsent (II)
Clemency Burton-Hill describes the sight that greeted friends of the composer and pianist Erik Satie when, following his death in...
The taste of brass
You can feel it can't you - that cold-surface metallic sensation in your mouth?
John Keats fell in love and...
For love of a letter
A letter carried, quite literally, close to the heart, despite the torment its presence provokes. Vasily Grossman's mother died in...
The merry mind
The actress Ingrid Bergman had a short relationship with the photographer Robert Capa. I love this quotation from a letter...
An awakened influence
Charlotte Bronte describes the spirit of writing when it flows. This happens to me occasionally, and I've noticed you can't...
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