I'm reading Susan Maushart's non-fiction book, The Winter of Our Disconnect, which I wrote about in my latest newsletter. This made me think of a recent conversation in which my husband and I recalled writing letters. Don’t you just miss receiving a handwritten letter — unfolding the paper, savoring page after page, and then reading it all over again? E-mail is just so different.

Many classic authors are famous for writing long letters that are almost literary works in their own right: Flaubert, Dickens, Twain, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Woolf. Reading their published correspondence, we see them as ordinary people, men and women who worked at their craft. It seems a shame that writers of our time won’t be leaving behind such richness of material.

What do you think?

Lane I agree letters are great and I miss them. I found in my last job, working at a Citizens Advice Bureau (free advice for the general public on issues such as consumer, debt, employment, housing etc) I got to write loads of PROPER letters - I really enjoyed them, and also the good responses I received! It was a revelation, as for years I had hardly written any letters. Whilst I don't do letters much I do try and send cards with more than just a quick greeting in them.

You are right that letters can say so much about peoople. I recently wrote an article about the Brontes for English Culture, and was interested to see how much letters that had survived had helped us create a picture of their lives and history.

Asha, when I posted the thread I'd just read an excerpt from one of Charlotte's letters where she describes "Ellis" and "Acton" sewing — it's so charming. I also try to write cards and at least short notes when I can, but I find that I don't even know the snail-mail addresses of many of my friends. Shame on me.

I've just been to your site. I love Nigella — and my husband, who is the cook in the house, absolutely adores her! Thank goodness for Saatchi, or else he might well run off to England one of these days

Lane Nigella is great isn't she? And she doesn't look her age - she is now 51.

I know what you mean about snail mail addresses. One of my failings is texting people to ask for the address if I want to send them a postcard/card/info then deleting the text and not recording the address in a permanent place. Over the years I have lived at a lot of places and often find friends who are good with address books have several addresses for me...

Good to hear you enjoying the Bronte letters. Their world was so different to the world we live in now.

It has been a long time since my last letter writing to my friend. I think letters is steel a good way to make contact with our friends.

When I was a kid I used to look forward to receiving letters. I still remember writing everyone I knew and looking forward to receiving something back in the mail. By the time I was an adult e-mails were already the norm. I have to say I miss receiving letters in the mail. It was a nice touch to my day when I went out to the mailbox and found something other than bills and junk mail filling my mailbox.

Letters - they are wonderful. People in the future will not have the treasure trove of paper letters filled with interesting bits of history. What happens to all this stuff online and in personal online mailboxes - short nonsensical sentences and forwards; little of substance?

I love the smell of paper, really. It's so fresh. But handwritten letters are a thing of the past. I have never got one in my life.