readers’ letters REALIMAGE / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO dam


average of 400-500 letters a day, including about 100 that are handwritten. Around Brexit, numbers went up to 600-700. While the postbags on nationals may be bursting, this is


not always the case for local papers where finding letters suitable for print can sometimes prove to be a challenge. Pamela Parr, a former sub on the Liverpool Daily Post and The Merseymart, recalls regularly having to fill letters pages, which she says was “great fun”. “We’d usually write something controversial to provoke a response, and this was often successful. If we were ever in great need of replies, we’d just write something about dog muck. For some reason, this always drew a large postbag. I suppose today’s equivalent is Brexit,” she says. Magazines offered incentives and still do – That’s Life pays £50 for a top tip and £75 for a star letter. The Journalist has also begun offering £30 for a star letter in order to encourage more readers to write in. Among readers who need no incentive are those referred to


as the “green ink brigade”. “A green ink writer was somebody who got obsessed with something and would write across old railway timetables or any piece of paper that came to hand in green ink and they were widely regarded as an intolerable nuisance,” says Ian. “When I became the readers editor, I was warned by a number of people that the green ink brigade would descend and make my life intolerable – but that never happened. Over 10 years, I came to the conclusion they had either faded away or were much reduced in numbers.” Jeannette Page, former Guardian letters editor, kept a tally. The person who wrote the most letters in 1994 was Gary Slapper, second was Keith Flett and third was Peter Barnes. Slapper had no fewer than 30 letters published in The Guardian in 1994, Flett had 16 and Barnes had eight. In 1993, the top scorer was Flett – described by Jeannette as “the uncrowned king of letter writers” – followed by Slapper then Barnes. Flett’s contributions (known as “Fletters”) have been a frequent sight on Fleet Street for years. The Daily Mirror took a direct approach with the “Old


What makes a good letter?


Author and journalist, Iain Hollingshead says the perfect letter is “pithy, short and to the point”. “It has got to be original,


not some hackneyed joke,” he says. “Often something that comes from personal experience like a perspective someone can share that is unique to them is quite interesting. “Bad letters are the ones


that drone on and on. The ones I always dread are the PR letters and people desperately trying to get their company name checked. I think the


readers hate the ‘we the undersigned’ sort of letters with 300 names on as well.” Writing in The Guardian,


former letters editor, Jeannette Page says: “The letters most likely to succeed are brief to the point and push forward debate, yet there is no such thing as the perfect letter as the page has to reflect a good mix – a political debate, a foreign affair and preferably a bit of a joke.” Jane Alexander, author of Kind Regards, the


Lost Art of Letter Writing, believes there is a lot to be gained from writing by hand. “You can express your


feelings more eloquently,” she says. “Not just with the words you choose, but also with the amount of pressure on the page, the energy of your script, the writing implement you choose and the colour of your ink – somehow the very soul comes out on paper in a way that is very hard to replicate on screen, even with copious use of emojis.”


Codgers”, a fictional pair who commented on readers’ letters from 1935 to 1990. While an email may be quicker to rattle off, writer, author and blogger Jane Alexander (www.exmoorjane.com) believes it can lack the depth of a letter written by hand. “If you’re using pen and paper, you tend to think more carefully about what you’re writing as there isn’t the possibility of cutting and pasting, erasing and rewriting,” she says. “There is also some suggestion that we express ourselves more freely and openly with the pen rather than tapping away on the keyboard.” Like many, Jane is a huge fan of letters pages and hopes they will survive.


Iain Hollingshead agrees and believes the advent of email


has reignited the art of letter writing. “I think there is still a cachet to being published,” says Iain.


“When people can write any old drivel online, there is actually that element of competition to being chosen and selected, there is a real kudos I think with that.”


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