Letter Writing – A Lost Art

I always loved writing letters. I wrote that in the past tense because it’s not something which happens much any more. Even I, who have loved writing and receiving letters all my life, now rely almost entirely on text message and email. The exception is greetings cards in which I will often enclose a hand-written message.

As a young child I exchanged regular letters with my grandparents who didn’t live close by and didn’t have phones. After Christmas or my birthday I would write thank you letters to relatives who hade sent presents. The thank you letters could be a bit of a chore when written to relatives I rarely saw! Whilst in secondary school I exchanged letters with a friend who had moved to another town and a primary school friend who went to a boarding school at 11 years old. I always saw my boarding school friend when she came home in the holidays and I’m convinced that our regular writing of letters through her boarding school years is the reason why we are still good friends to this day. We live nowhere near each other now and haven’t done for years but we still get together when we can. The vast number of letters exchanged during term times kept our primary school bond, forged when we were four years old, strong.

In the 60s when I was in secondary school, pen friends were very popular. They were arranged by the school. I imagine they used an agency of some sort. During my years in high school I had two pen friends in America and I loved swapping letters with them and comparing the music and fashions we liked and the ways in which we spent our leisure time. For a couple of years I was pen-pals with a French boy. Looking back, the French ones would probably have been arranged by our French teacher with a view to improving our French skills and their English ones. I was expected to write in French and he in English. Although these pairings, both French and American, were arranged by school the letters were done in our own time and not checked so it felt more like a friendship than an educational task. They were also optional. We were asked if we wanted to be hooked up with a pen friend.

As a young child I wrote on lined paper, soon graduating to unlined paper. The unlined pads always had a sheet of guide lines to put under the page you were writing on. Moving into my teen years I favoured coloured writing paper and matching envelopes – often blue Basildon Bond like the one below.

The pen friend letters were written on special lightweight airmail paper with lightweight envelopes carrying a border of red and blue.

I loved going to a stationery shop and choosing a new set of paper and envelopes. In my early twenties I favoured Churston Deckle in a shade of cream called (I think) ecru and also a brand called Three Candlesticks. Part of the pleasure of writing on quality letter paper was using a fountain pen rather than a biro.

I also had a beautiful red leather writing case bought for me as a gift. Writing cases looked like this inside and had a zip around three sides to stop everything falling out. I still have my grandfather’s which is just like this one.

Credit to Google Images and Wikipedia. If anyone objects to my use of a particular image please contact me and it will be removed.

28 thoughts on “Letter Writing – A Lost Art”

  1. I to have happy memories of writing to a “ pen friend “ in my case she lived in Los Angeles . She seemed intrigued that in England we had to wear “school uniforms “ , I can even remember her address she also had difficulty understanding that although England looked such a small place on the map( compared to the USA ) I hadn’t actually met the Beatles ,ah what memories 😊

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  3. It is a lost art, and underlined by (many) schools no longer teaching cursive. Or, longhand as it was known.

    For a child, there was something exciting about receiving that hand-written envelope from a friend or relative and, somehow, texting doesn’t do that.

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  4. It is a lost art, and underlined by (many) schools no longer teaching cursive. Or, longhand as it was known.

    For a child, there was something exciting about receiving that hand-written envelope from a friend or relative and, somehow, texting doesn’t do that.

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    • It was SO exciting! And back in the ‘old days’ we had a second delivery in the afternoon. If your expected letter didn’t arrive in the morning you had a second chance. Yes, cursive now, longhand back then or just plain old ‘joined up’ writing! Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  6. Yes I too loved to write letters and also had a pen friend the US. I think she thought I was some sort of model lol because I had written and told her that I learned deportment at a school but it was nothing to be gloating about lol. Your pics reminded me of what we used to write on in those days. I remember my Dad taking me to KENS FOR PENS here in Dunedin to buy a fountain pen and we came out of the shop with a maroon coloured beautiful pen and a Stephens bottle of blue ink. The teacher I had way back then taught us Italic writing so we needed the right pen, my parents must have shelled out so much money for me to ‘get it right’ in those days. I look back fondly to my childhood in the 50s, I’m now baking some shortbread to take to some people today so that will ‘keep me off the streets’ won’t it.

    Take good care

    Carolyn

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      • lol yes I did keep off the streets, I went to the supermarket and it was ‘heaving’ mainly because a competitive supermarket was closed due to rat infestation ew!!! and they all came to the local one that is close to where I live. Oh well I shall get on with the chore around here, washing ironing, baking, cooking, you know the stuff.

        Have a happy day yourself

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      • It’s Sunday 25th 8.15 pm here in the UK. One of the things I enjoy about doing this blog is how many shared memories I and my readers have even though many readers are living in different continents.

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  7. So much recognition! I wrote lots of letters, and kept all letters that I recieved. I still have them in the attic, and I plan to go through them in the future. Not least because I know I have many letters from people that I think would be happy to get their writings back, and I might be able to do them that favour. I know I would be happy to reread what I once wrote to those long lost penpals. I too, stopped writing letters when email became the means of keeping in touch, but I do miss it.

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  9. How true. I also had a pen friend, Antoinetta. She lived in Bari in Italy. I wonder what she’s doing now. I still like to write letters and still write to a friend who moved away a few years ago. We’re both a bit too old now to be travelling long distances; I certainly am. A letter helps to close the gap. Thank you for another fond memory. 

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