Saturday, November 24, 2007

When Did You Last Recieve a Love Letter?

The Daily Telegraph reports that Brits are Falling out of Love with Love Letters. Fewer than 1 in 5 Brits received a love letter in the last year. The story goes on to relay statistics of such letters, by demographics and age, and also the habit of writing thank you notes.

I suspect that we are ahead of the Brits in this devolution. A 41 cent stamp and 7 pm delivery is still shocking and may have something to do with the aversion to writing letters. I remember 13 cents and mail delivery twice a day.

This morning NPR did a terrific 12 minute story on the collected letters of the Mitford sisters, including an interview with the last surviving sister. Remember Cold Comfort Farm? also a 2001 Masterpiece Theater production with Anthony Andrews in the perfectly creepy role of 'Boy', Pursuit of Love? Oswald Mosley? Mary Lovell, one of my favorite biographers (Rebel Heart on Jane Digby and Cast No Shadow on WWII spy Betty Pack), has a book on the sisters, too. Quite a window into the history of the last century. The loss to history is another reason to mourn the lack of letter writing.

When was the last time you received a hand written note? Vote in the survey in the right side column. And maybe take the time to write a letter today.

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