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Books

'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

30 November 2013

9:00 AM

30 November 2013

9:00 AM

To the Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World Simon Garfield

Canongate, pp.464, £16.99, ISBN: 9780857868589

Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving a Wider Audience Shaun Usher

Canongate, pp.384, £30, ISBN: 9781782112235

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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To the Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World is Available from the Spectator Bookshop,  £13.99, Tel: 08430 600033

Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving a Wider Audience is Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £24, Tel: 08430 600033

You might disagree with half of it, but you’ll enjoy reading all of it. Try your first month for free, then just $2 a week for the remainder of your first year.


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