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Epistolary writing -- it's in the post!

mail, by Terry Freedman

Have you read any works written in the form of letters? Or have you written anything like that yourself? I've been interested in that genre for a long time, so I was delighted when, a few weeks ago, a course came up at the City Lit institute looking at epistolary fiction.

What's especially interesting, I think, is the fact that life obviously happens between letters. Thus to some extent one has to attempt to piece together what's not being said. It's also quite interesting when you get the same event told by two different people in their letters, something I first came across in the book Berry & Co, by Dornford Yates.

As a result of the course, I now have an extra book added to my to-be-read list, and which I have picked up from the library: Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple.

I've also been writing on Substack, and by a strange coincidence Substack announced, around the same time I started the course, that they would like people to have a go at writing letters to each other, on the Substack platform. 

A lady called Rebecca and I have decided to try it out. So far she has written a letter to me, and I have replied. The plan is that she will write to me on Thursdays, and I will reply on the following Sunday.

If you'd like to open our post, so to speak, here are the links you need

Rebecca's letter to me

My reply to Rebecca

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