THE WRITE STUFF

Before e-mail, young readers, there was something just called 'mail' –– letters, written by hand (and later by typewriter) and delivered by personal courier (and later by a government agency). Now, unless you are reasonably old, it may be difficult to believe in such a weird-sounding and obviously antiquated means of communication, but not only did it actually worked and led to the art of letter writing...

Shaun Usher created a marvellous website Letters of Note to share extraordinary, funny, touching and inspiring examples of this arcane craft with the children of the 'e-generation'. Then the website became a book, Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience and I have spent the past week delighting in it's engaging and diverting contents...

Within these covers are a collection of famous (and, occasionally, infamous) Men and Women of Letters – Queens, Presidents, film stars, authors, musicians and artists – writing to their admirers, enemies, lovers, and children and, in so doing, reveal something unique about their famous selves or offer life insights that are more than worthy of consideration...

The letters are not just quoted, almost all are reproduced: elegantly penned, neatly typed or erratically scribbled on hotel, airline or exercise book paper.

I began noting down my favourites but the list just kept growing, however, special gems include...

* Gandhi writing to Hitler pleading with him to avoid a war – intercepted by British intelligence, the letter was never delivered and, days later, Germany invaded Poland...

* Captain Robert Scott's last words home from the frozen wastes of Antarctica 

* Charles Schulz responding to a young reader of his Peanuts strips asking the cartoonist to get rid of a new character, Charlotte Braun, briefly introduced in 1955: "I am taking your suggestion regarding Charlotte Braun and will eventually discard her... Remember, however, that you and your friends will have the death of an innocent child on your conscience. Are you prepared to accept such responsibility?" The accompanying sketch shows Miss Braun literally getting the 'chop'...

* Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon's letter to the New York Sun asking if it were true – as her school friends had told her – that there was no such person as Santa Claus together with veteran newsman, Frances Pharcellus Church's famous reply beginning: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus... He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist...."

* A heart-breaking suicide note from Virginia Woolf to her husband, Leonard, on her second, successful, attempt to drown herself...

* Katherine Hepburn writing to Spencer Tracy – 18 years after his death...

* A blistering letter from Kurt Vonnegut to the head teacher of a school where copies of his book Slaughterhouse-Five had been burned in the school furnace...

* A young girl's letter to would-be President Abraham Lincoln suggesting he would stand a better chance of getting elected if he grew whiskers ("...all the ladies like whiskers") and honest Abe's reply: "As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?" History shows he, nevertheless, took the advice...

* Mary Stuart writing to King Henry III of France on February 8th, 1587, just six hours before she knelt before her executioner...

*The letter that led to the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot...

* The tragic SOS telegram from the sinking Titanic... 

* Seven-year old Amy who, inspired by Roald Dahl's The BFG, sent the author a bottle containing one of her dreams (a concoction of oil, coloured water and sparkle) and received this perfect reply:

* Mario Puzo begging Marlon Brando to consider the role of Vito Corleone in the film of  The Godfather...

* Alec Guinness writing to a friend and complaining about the rubbish script he was being given as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars and mentioning co-star, "Tennyson Ford – Ellison – Harrison Ford - ever heard of him?"

* A chilling memo from William Safire to H R Haldeman with the text of the Presidential broadcast in the event of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing ending in disaster with the non-recovery of Armstrong and Aldrin...

* Molecular biologist Francis Crick writing to his twelve-year-old son to explain the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA...

One hundred-and-twenty-five fascinating letters from – among many others – Charles Dickens, Spike Milligan, Bette Davis, Mark Twain, Elvis Presley, E B White, Samuel Barber, Dorothy Parker, Louis Armstrong, Iggy Pop, Groucho Marx, Jack the Ripper and – perhaps most delicious of all – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II writing to President Dwight D Eisenhower in 1960 to send him her recipe for drop scones as served at Balmoral!

I am also delighted that the book includes a letter I received forty years ago this year in response to a far letter sent to the American Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer, Ray Bradbury, that began a precious friendship that lasted until Ray's death in 2012...

Shaun Usher's Letters of Note is a veritable treasury of wit and wisdom interlaced with deeply moving testimonies to the indomitable human spirit and a book to which you will return again and again. The British edition can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk and the US edition from Amazon.com