Past event
Date:
4-8 October 2016
Letters Live returned to London’s iconic Freemasons’ Hall, Oct 4th to 8th. Performers included: Gillian Anderson, Matt Berry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, John Bishop, Louise Brealey, Edith Bowman, Jarvis Cocker, Lily Cole, Julian Clary, Jamie Cullum, Sophie Dahl, Simon Day, Omid Djalili, Mariella Frostrup, Charlie Heaton, Keaton Henson, Toby Jones, Jude Law, Miriam Margolyes, Michael Palin, Nicholas Parsons, Robert Rinder, Colin Salmon and Juliet Stevenson
Inspired by Shaun Usher’s international best-selling Letters of Note series and Simon Garfield’s To The Letter, Letters Live has moved audiences to both laughter and tears through a series of heartfelt, humorous and at times, heartbreaking letters, delivered by the most talented and acclaimed talent from the worlds of arts and culture.
The charities supported at this event were Ministry of Stories, First Story and Help Refugees.
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Who is this kid?
Tom Hanks to George Roy Hill
Farewell my dear brother
Pinchas Einsner to Mordechai Eisner
Your Research department
John Peel to Matthew Bannister
Thank you & I hope you choke
Beatles Fan to Nike
You’re nothing but a pimp.
Frank Sinatra to Mike Ryoko
Part of this world, part of another
Gene Wilder to Mel Stuart
Live like a mighty river
Ted Hughes to His Son
Parsons was FURIOUS
Kenneth Williams to Frances Meredith
Sleep well my love
Brian Keith to Dave
Dear Friend
Hermione Gringold to A Friend
You Babylonian Scullion
Mehmed IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks
They don’t care about you
Sinead O’Connor to Miley Cyrus
I would like to retain ‘fart in your general direction’
Mark Forstater to Michael White
There’s no hope in war
Kurt Vonnegut to US Government
We were brothers way before you were
Groucho Marx to Warner Bros
We all feel like that now and then
Sir Archibald Clark Kerr to Lord Reginald Pembroke
Thinkers and Doers
Buckminster Fuller to Michael
Try and be a Dynketisnipsy Girl
Roald Dahl to Elizabeth
The Empire State Building
Hellen Keller to Dr. John Finley
Don’t let anybody raise you
Maya Angelou to Herself
Not Raising Hogs
JB Lee Jr to Ed Foreman
My Dungeon Shook
James Baldwin to His Nephew
No Witnesses
Even Now
Love Letter
Adagio
Who is this kid?
Tom Hanks to George Roy Hill
My Dear Little Grandfather
Marcel Proust to his Grandfather
Bruce is great
Joe Strummer to Mark Hagen
This wretched comedy as a man
Lili Elvenes to “Christian”
Hang on my love
Iggy Pop to Laurence
Grow Up as Good Revolutionaries
Che Guevara to His Children
Rock Against Racism
Rock against Racism to the Music Press
A New Page in Motion Picture History
Samuel Goldwyn to Walt Disney
It is Forbidden. How exciting.
Melissa to Various
Don’t touch his hair
Three Elvis Fans to US President Eisenhower
Your words built a castle
Chrissy Hart to JK Rowling
Dear Friend
Hermione Gringold to A Friend
You are not so kind as you used to be
Clementine Churchill to Winston Churchill
Seat 29E
A Customer to Continental Airlines
Star Trek Memos
Star Trek Producers to Star Trek Producers
I am unable to accept your rejection at this time
Paul Devlin to Various Colleges
None of us will vote for Trump
Former Nationsl Security Officials to the US Public
The spectacle sickened me
George Bernard Shaw to The Times
It was supposed to be me
Basil Rathbone to His Father
Your type is a dime a dozen
Hunter S Thomson to Anthony Burgess
This is quite true
Evelyn Waugh to Laura Waugh
Thou shalt dwell in houses thou hast not builded
Lion Feuchtwagner to the Occupant of His House
1796 to 1911
Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine
Run
Call You Home
Love Letters
Song of the Birds
We are unintelligible
Jack London to Anna Strunsky
My Dungeon Shook
James Baldwin to His Nephew
Tell him about his father
Luz Long to Jessie Owens
It is a stunning script
Michael Powell to Martin Scorsese
Fortunately I had my new radio
Mary Grant to A Walker
An Instrument of Joy
Margaret Mead to Elizabeth Mead
The survivors will envy the dead
Jackeline Kennedy to Nikita Krushchev
We will die together
Zelda Fitzgerald to F. Scott Fitzgerald
To my son who is dying
Emily Rapp
Do Scientists Pray?
Albert Einstein to Phyllis
You are doing just fine soldier
June Wandrey to Her Family
The Loss of you lingers
Karin Cook to Joan Cook Carpenter
Dear Internet
Tina Fey to Internet commenters
He has nothing left but his poker
AT Harris to Atlantic City Railroad
The mingled souls of wheat and corn
R.G Ingresoll to Rev Dr JM Buckley
Five accidents in two Minutes
Fred Allen to State of NY Insurance Dept.
Our Gods are assholes
Iggy Pop to Joshua Berger
Mail me the letters, set me free
Charles Bukowski to John Corrington
You Babylonian scullion
Mehmed IV to Zaporozhian Cossacks
He is not a forgiving cat
John Cheever to Josie Herbst
Books are people
EB White to Children of Troy
Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
Black is the Colour
Hoops
Wild
A land of passionfruit and poetry
Arthur Streeton to Theodore Fink
Sincerely Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud to Lynn Barber
He is not a forgiving cat
John Cheever to Josie Herbst
I do not believe in war
Joan Baez to the Internal Revenue Service
We press you close and kiss you with all our strength
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to Their Sons
How could you go ahead of me?
A Widow to Eung-Tae Lee
I wanted to be a nun or a movie star
Madonna to Stephen Lewick
DO
Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse
I invented Punk
Lester Bangs to East Village Eye Magazine (1981)
Dogs Vs Cats
Letters to the Guardian
I love my wife. My wife is dead.
Richard Feynman to Arline Feynman
I Love Love Love you
John Lennon to Cynthia
Fortunately I had my new radio
Mary Grant to A Walker
The most astonishing things
Madame de Sevigne to Phillipe-Emmanuel de Coulange
I have not shot her yet
Dorothy Parker to Seward Collins
I am unable to accept your rejection at this time
Paul Devlin to Various Colleges
Letter to Mama
Michael T Oliver to His Mother
We were brothers long before you were
Groucho Marx to Warner Bros
My good friend Roosevelt
Fidel Castro to US President Franklin D Roosevelt
The coyote
William James to Alexander James
1796 to 1911
Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine
The Matchbox
Sylvia Townsend Warner to Alyse Gregory
How I would Love to Work for You
Eudora Welty to The New Yorker
In My Hand
Dear John
Ae Fond Kiss (letter leading into song)
It’s up to you now
Bette Davis to B. D Hyman
Enid Blyton goes to Hollywood
Phyllida Law to Alec Guiness
The spectacle sickened me
George Bernard Shaw to The Times
Star Trek Memos
I am in receipt of your Final Demand
Naval Officer to A Creditor
Help me honor my husband
Amber Amundson to US President George Bush Jr.
None of us will vote for Trump
Former National Security Officials to the US Public
My Dungeon Shook
James Baldwin to His Nephew
Our differences unite us
Barack Obama and Sophia Bailey-Klugh
Diversity guarantees our cultural survival
Martin Scorsese to the New York Times
I invented Punk
Lester Bangs to East Village Eye Magazine
What did you say? I can’t hear you?
Katherine Hepburn to Spencer Tracy
Dear President Obama
Alex to President Barack Obama
I am the dead one
Spike Milligan to George Harrison
I like words
Robert Pirosh to Various
I do occasionally eat
Lucian Freud to Lynn Barber
Everyone has to be a child
Jessica Morley to the Economist
Tiger Oil Memos
Tiger Mike to Staff
A gift beyond gifts
Peter DeMarco to CHA Cambridge Hospital
He has nothing left but his poker
A.T Harris to Atlantic City Railroad
Dear Theresa May
I’m Sorry
Sophie Dahl Personal Letter to A & M
Seeking wisdom
Cheryl Strayd
In My Hand
I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter
Gran Torino
Gold Digger, I Got a Woman and Blackbird mashup
