Sir, – Marie Kelly’s article “Reviving the lost art of letter-writing: Any handwritten letter is a love letter of sorts” (November 9th) has me purring my approval.
As I was raised in an Irish home without a telephone (younger readers please note, waiting lists for telephones back in pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland could stretch over several years), and having emigrated as soon as I left university in the 1970s, putting pen to paper to write letters, notes and postcards has been an integral part of my life ever since I could hold a pen in my hand.
Actually writing lines on paper is an entirely different process from stabbing fingers on a keyboard. Why? Because you think things out differently, it requires more effort and it’s more rewarding it in the end.
While I have no sound or video recordings for many people who are no longer with us, I am extremely grateful indeed to have a personal archive containing correspondence received from them, letters in their own, highly individual handwriting complete with the original envelopes carrying the date and exact place of posting, much better than today’s catch-all general postmark.
RM Block
Today’s technology is fast, handy, reliable, and I’m delighted to use it, but can it ever compare with finding a personal, handwritten missive waiting in the postbox?
And, in a few years’ time, shall our endless text messages be available for fond perusal while “ real” correspondence on paper is with us forever? – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN O’SULLIVAN,
Paris,
France.
