Cressida Connolly

‘God has given me a new Turkish colleague called Mustapha Kunt…’

In Letters of Note, Shaun Usher has compiled a stupendous collection of memorable missives, often by famous people — and with facsimiles, each page is a marvel

Letters of Note includes letters from Elvis Presley to President Nixon Photo: Mondadori via Getty 
issue 30 November 2013
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  • To the Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World

    Simon Garfield

    Canongate, pp. 464

  • Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving a Wider Audience

    Shaun Usher

    Canongate, pp. 384

Under normal circumstances, Simon Garfield’s chatty and informative excursion into the history of letter-writing would be a book to recommend. In recent years this author has produced eloquent and witty accounts of his fascination for maps and for typefaces: To the Letter makes a nice companion piece. Part of the book is a gentle lamentation about the end of letters; a death hastened, Garfield believes, by the digital age.

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