WRITE TO US If you have a comment on this week’s issue or would like to share something or ask a question of our readers, please do write to Letters, The Lady, The Kinetic Centre, Theobald Street, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 4PJ or email letters@lady.co.uk
THE WRITE STUFF
I was so pleased to read Liz Hodgkinson’s column ‘Don’t Forget to Write!’ (March issue) about how letter-writing was common in the past and why we should get back to doing so. Even though I have an Apple iPad, I love to sit and write letters by hand.
It’s also amazing how surprised people are when they see I have written a shopping list, and when I post correspondence to my family in America, the staff in the Post Office often ask if I wrote the address on the envelope. Even Amazon drivers comment on the handwritten notes I leave on my front door asking them to leave my parcel with a neighbour.
I hope that a return to writing by hand will happen – but it might take a long time.
Valerie Debenham, Blackwood, Gwent
PROPER PENPALS
I thoroughly enjoy writing letters, and one of my favourite correspondents is a 73-year-old lady called Brigitte, who lives in Mâcon, near Lyon in France.
We met in 1998, when I was living there and working at the Conseil Général de Saône-et-Loire as part of my degree course. Brigitte worked in the council library and archives, and we worked together on translations for leaflets held there.
We used to lunch in the convent I was staying at next to the council building, which was called the Maison les Saints Anges ( below).
It was a challenging time for me, living abroad and being alone for the first time, but Brigitte was so kind and brought warmth and comfort to my experience. We have corresponded by letter – our only method of communication – ever since, updating each other on significant events. I was 20 at the time and I am now approaching the age Brigitte was when we met.
Linda Scott-Giles, Wimborne, Dorset
SKY-HIGH ACHIEVEMENT
I feel I must write to express my sadness that in February’s feature, ‘The Princess of Wales: Taking Centre Stage’, Thomas Blaikie referred to Carole Middleton’s job as an air hostess as ‘humble’!
As a former chief training stewardess with British European Airways, I can tell him that the selection and training for this job was and still is of a very high standard. It is a much sought-after profession.
Certainly, in Carole’s day applicants were required to have some nursing, hotel and hospita
