The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Even though we had telephone conversations, I wrote to both my DS and DD every week during their years at university and also, when my poor old Mum became too deaf to use the phone satisfactorily, to her too every week. All three said how pleasing it always was to receive a letter in the post.

I must admit not to writing letters much since the ubiquity of email but I do keep a daily journal and have done for over 50 years. I guess I just enjoy writing.

My lovely Mum was a great letter writer, and I have several from her in my memory box.
Sorting through DS 1's 'stuff' brought back from Uni I found a letter she had written to him saying that if he ever needed anything while he was there, she and my Dad would help in any way they could. (We were living abroad at the time.)
DS2 was very good at writing long newsy thankyou letters to an ancient Gt. Aunt. She loved receiving them and would ring me up to tell me she had received one, a certain irony there!

One of my deepest regrets was having to leave my grandmother behind when we moved from the Isle of Wight to East Anglia. Dad had just died and he was her only son so I knew she would be lonely but the move was essential for DH's career and we had two small children to support.

Nan and I wrote regularly to eachother. Whenever she felt lonely she would put pen to paper and tell me rather than bottle it up. I would reply immediately suggesting she move off the Island and live with us but of course, sensibly, she said she could not face the upheaval. It would not have worked. I know I couldn't have coped with an elderly lady and two toddlers but the words were heartfelt.

We paid a surprise visit to the Island and took her out for the day. She had a lovely time. It was the last time a saw her. Shortly afterwards she was found unconscious by a neighbour and died in hospital. My last letter to her was found unopened and returned to me.

I have kept and treasured all Nan's letters because they reassure me that I couldn't have changed anything but I wonder if I had my time again whether I would have tried to talk DH out of moving.

There have been a few threads on this subject.I started one in the AIBU forum in August suggesting we start a 'Write a letter' day. It petered out quite quickly.
I also have a treasured bundle of long air-mail letters from my DD when she spent 2yrs in NZ in 80s from DS in California in early 90s (and from a lover travelling in India at that time!)
It is a shame that letter-writing is on the wane.is writing still taught in schools?
I remember pages of loops and swirls when we started 'joined-up'writing.

Sadly I now have a tremor in my rt hand so writing is more difficult .I do wonder how long it will be before my signature is unacceptable

My Mum once said to me "You write a lovely letter - everyone thinks so" which made me realise I had to be careful just what I said in letters to her as she obviously did not keep them to herself!

An email letter is still a letter. I've written hundreds of letters in my life but I'm jolly glad I can now type them on a computer because actual physical writing is very painful. Without this advance in technology I'd be very cut off. So, no complaints about advances in technology.

Email is quicker than snail mail too. Another advance.

You can always print out ones you want to keep.

dorset.

I love writing letters and it is timely you started this thread. I received a letter today from my uncle who, it has to be said, is not very good at writing letters. The last time I visited him I gave him a pack of stamps and asked him to please keep writing to me as he said it was getting a bit dear. It is a joy to send a letter and receive one in my opinion.

I also give a pack of stamps to anyone I visit in hospial along with a writing pad and pen. It has always been a welcomed gift and obviously it gives the recipient something to do and helps them keep some contact with the outside world.Especially as flowers are now banned from most hospitals.

I love to use my old school pen and ink too. I use a style of calligraphy and I find I never have a letter ignored by those I write to, unlike emails.

It is comforting to write words on paper that face to face you never seem to be able to say. To have kept letters from past loves is wonderful and obviously from those you have lost.

I love writing sending and receiving letters or notes. Really pleased that 7 years old Grandaughter writes regulary to us including thank you letters and I miss you and when will you visit letters. They go straight into my memory box because they are indeed to be treasured. I also write letterscor notecards to friends and family alongside emails Skype and FaceTime. Would hate to lose the art of letter writing and the excitement ofvthe psot arriving.

Oh dear my spelling/typing is useless today! Meant post of course

We'll only lose the art if people stop doing it. It's up to us. I love letters too. DD has several penfriends. But I'm very glad of email too. If letter-writing does die out, it'll be because it has been superseded by something that people find easier, more practical, cheaper, faster, etc. No point in being negative about it if it's inevitable in the modern world.

I don't think it will die out, but if it does, in a few generations, so be it.

I must confess I tend to use email these days, except when I write to my Mother. When I visited her at the beginning of the year my brother and I decided to tidy her room (she is in a nursing home) and found she had kept all my letters in a drawer!

Gagagran My mother used to say that to me as well especially after Christmas. I think what she meant was, You can write all the thank you letters because I can't be bothered haven't got time.

My uncle sent me some letters that I'd written to my gran, his mum, in my late teens. I desptroyed them because I was ashamed of the teenager I'd been as reflected in those letters. I wasn't nasty. It's just that I went out of my way to think and do what other people wanted memto think and do and, with age and wisdom and hindsight, I found that rather nauseating. So glad I grew out of that!

I recently received a handwritten letter for the first time in yonks, and I was struck by the lovely, spiky, 'architectural' handwriting. I hardly ever write these days, my handwriting wants to break free and go all over the page and I struggle to control it. I remember years ago reading/being told that 'handwriting is brainwriting and as unique to a person as their fingerprint'. So pity if that gets lost then?

Bags I'm not knoocking progress as I use it myself. My point is, and judging comments made by others on this thread, that in the future there won't letters from our past that we can read. The letters from my father to my mother are over fifty years old.

I have eight pen pals, we write regularly, have done for decades. Letters are so much more personal than email . Though email is extremely useful for keeping in contact with far flung children and friends, as is SKYPE but letters are special.

I prefer a typed letter to handwrittenl I must admit as it allows me to change things effortlessly rather than either scribbling out or starting again. I find I say a lot more when I'm typing too and using A4 can make the envelope that bit thinner which = cheaper!

I don't tend to write newsy emails to friends. As I write a lot of emails for work based activities I find them less attractive for writing news although there is one older person I write to by email otherwise we'd be waiting for ever for the post and we have a lot to say to each other and enjoy exchanging views.

So, it's the immediacy I think is attractive. Sometimes I do long for a fountain pen and some writing paper but (a) I've never been 100% happy with fountain pens whatever their price and (b) my handwriting is not as good as it was - when I make notes I quite often can't read them! As I write I think 'Oh yes, I'll remember what that squiggle is' - but of course I don't. I do use shorthand - or rather speed writing - from time to time in lectures which is useful. Noone seems to learn shorthand these days - or do they?

Me too, goldengirl. My auntie was a great letter writer and she encouraged me as a child. The problem was that her writing was illegible! She got herself a typewriter later on, and I loved receiving her letters. If she was alive today, we would be exchanging fancy emails and using different fonts, styles and backgrounds to make things interesting for each other.

when.I also enjoy playing with different fonts and styles.Which is your favourite? Mine for general use is Comic Sans Serif. But in emails to GD we both try out different styles and lots of emoticons!
Sadly just remembered that first indications of my mother's dementia were odd phrases,mistakes and repetitions in her letters.

Yes, Comic Sans is a 'friendly' font, so i often use it. My friend is really creative with backgrounds, and I never know what is going to appear when I open her emails. There is one font that looks like natural handwriting, can't remember what it's called, but that's another one that comes in useful. If I'm writing a formal letter, it's usually Times Roman or Arial.

There are some useful websites that have active graphics of leaping dolphins, rockets taking off, sparkling baskets of flowers, dogs wagging tails, and anything you can think of. They brighten up emails, too.

I have a wonderful letter written by my mother when she was bombed in 1940. As with all her letters, it is written on a typewriter. I often think about how she would have loved being able to email. I think it is the content that matters.

Argh! Comic Sans - the most widely hated font there is!

For letters I like to vary the fonts - sometimes I'll use Georgia (nicer than Times New Roman) or Bookman Old Style. If in a sans-serif mood (!) it can be one of several, including Lucida Sans, Tahoma or Trebuchet MS...

It's well worth experimenting - just dont' mix them all in one text! (Same goes for colours...)