"Let's write letters more," says the author of a new book about letter writing. "I am for the preservation of handwriting, all of us, collectively", he adds. Catherine the Great described herself as a graphomaniac - she would write all night and every night to many different people. The telephone and then the internet and texting have destroyed it,. But I think letter writing will come back just as the book has come back.
Letters grant us a glimpse into fascinating lives, whether through the eyes of a genius, a monster or of an ordinary person. For this archive event, we matched up award-winning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore and No 1 bestselling novelist Kate Mosse to discuss the letters of Michelangelo, Catherine the Great, Sarah Bernhardt, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Virginia Woolf, Alan Turing and more. A cast of performers including Young Vic director Kwame Kwei-Armah, plus actors Jade Anouka, Jack Lowden and Tamsin Greig provided readings live onstage.
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