Wilderness Festival, 2023

Claire Foy

Alphabetti Spaghetti

Mrs J. Blackford to Viz

Not a line from you on my Birthday!

Jane Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle

Benedict Cumberbatch

It would be easier and pleasanter to drown myself

George Bernard Shaw to Various

I am left in quite the quandary!

Joe Lycett to Mark Carne

Sanjeev Bhaskar

I write you from the regions of hell

Robert Burns Mrs Riddel

Nothing else matters

Peter Thompson to Clare Venables

Louise Brealey

Life isn’t a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown

K.A. Applegate to her readers

We hear that you have found a new Red Ape

Virginia Woolf to her sister

Jason Isaacs

An idiot of the 33rd degree

Mark Twain to Salesman

Short gap for love-making

Humphry House to Madeliene

Noma Dumezweni

Dear Us

Toni Morrison to Black women

Give women the vote

Bertha Brewster to Daily Telegraph

Ferdinand Kingsley

Good-day, little rascal, pussy-pussy, little turned-up nose

Mozart to his wife

Gandhi was a great spiritual leader…

Jerry Emery to Guardian

Dolly Alderton

I’m allowed to be a woman who ages

Dolly Alderton A reader

I am sure you will agree

Edith Sitwell to Mrs Almer

Jordan Stephens

The answer is a resounding and permanent NO

Whitey to TV production company

Do they not understand?

Mr Drayton to The Journal

Emma Corrin

Like a tree in full bearing

Charlotte Bronte to W.S. Williams

Taron Egerton

I have had my eye on you

Simon Fallowfield to Mary Foster

Be proud

Elton John to himself

Rob Rinder

We all make mistakes

Sherrif Anwar to Julie and Brian

Dolly Alderton to a Reader, ‘I’m allowed to be a woman who ages’. © Dolly Alderton; Sheriff Anwar to Julie & Brian, ‘We all make mistakes’, March 2017. Contains information licensed under the Open Justice – Licence v1.0; K.A. Applegate to their readers, ‘Life isn’t a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown’, 2001. © K.A. Applegate, used with permission by Pippin Properties, Inc. (‘K.A. Applegate’ was a pseudonym used by husband-and-wife team, Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate); Mrs J. Blackford to Viz, ‘Alphabetti Spaghetti’, 1995. © Metropolis Publishing/Fulchester Industries; Mr Drayton to The Journal, ‘Do They not understand?’, 2012. © Mr Drayton, by permission of Mirrorpix.; Humphry House to Madeline Church, ‘Short gap for love-making’, 19th December 1933. From: Julia Parry, ‘The Shadowy Third: Love, Letters, and Elizabeth Bowen’. Duckworth (2021) © The Estate of Humphry House; Elton John to his younger self, ‘Be proud’, March 8th, 2009. © WAB Global Limited; Joe Lycett to Mark Carne, ‘I am left in quite the quandary!’, November 2014. © Joe Lycett; Toni Morrison to Black Women, ‘Dear Us’, 1985. Copyright ©Toni Morrison, 1985. Reprinted by permission of Toni Morrison and CAA; George Bernard Shaw to various. By permission of The Society of Authors, on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate. © The Estate of George Bernard Shaw; Edith Sitwell to Mrs. Almer, ‘I am sure you will agree’, 1930s. © The estate of Edith Sitwell; Peter Thompson to Clare Venables, ‘Nothing else matters’, 2003. © Peter Thompson; Whitey to TV production company, ‘The answer is a resounding No’, 2013. © Whitey; Virginia Woolf to her sister, Vanessa, ‘We hear that you have found a new Red Ape ‘, 6th February 1907. by permission of the Society of Authors for the estate of Virginia Woolf;

Jordan Stephens

Vegetable people

E. Mullion to Viz

The rooms about us will grow cold and drab

Dirk Bogarde to Kathleen Tynan

Benedict Cumberbatch

How can you live like this?

Oliver Beale to Richard Branson

Claire Foy

Enough is Enough

Marguerite Louise D’Orleans to Cosimo III De Medici

Emma Corrin

I love you—the way you always are

Zelda Fitzgerald to  F. Scott Fitzgerald

We are in a climate emergency

Anne Taylor Guardian

John Lloyd (Voice of God)

I will end with a cordial invitation

Auberon Waugh to Lionel Grigson

Louise Brealey

I want nobody but you for my lover

Katherine Mansfield to John Murry

Jason Isaacs

I’m getting too old for illness

Bruce Robinson to Richard E. Grant

It will be sunny one day

Stephen Fry to Crystal

Claire Foy + Louise Brealey

The Stones are dirty and sloppy and they repugnate me

Kathy and Pam

Noma Dumezweni

You write the worst letters

Anais Nin to Henry Miller

Ferdinand Kingsley

Yours in science

Harvey Rowe to Scott Williams

My thoughts are with two remarkable women

Philip Woolcock to Telegraph

Sinead Cusack

Shine, constantly and steadily

Caitlin Moran to Lizzie Moran

My pink cactus is probably going to flower

Adèle Eugénie Sidonie to Colette’s Husband

Taron Egerton

I’m going to mope about you in the bath

Dylan Thomas to Caitlin Macnamara

Claire Foy + Noma Dumezweni + Louise Brealey + Emma Corrin

Batman is still and will continue to be a perfect physical specimen

Various to Batman

Oliver Beal to Richard Branson, ‘How can you live like this?’, December 2008. © Olly Beale; Dirk Bogarde to Kathleen Tynan, ‘The rooms about us will grow cold and drab’, January 1995. © The Estate of Dirk Bogarde; Pamela Des Barres and Kathy & Stevie, ‘The Stones are dirty and sloppy and they repugnate me’, May 1965. © Pamela Des Barres; Stephen Fry to Crystal, ‘It will be sunny one day’, 2006. © Stephen Fry; Caitlin Moran to her daughter, ‘Shine, constantly and steadily’, July 2013. © Caitlin Moran; E. Mullion to Viz, ‘Vegetable people’, 2016. © Metropolis Publishing/Fulchester Industries; Anais Nin to Henry Miller, ‘You write the worst letters’, 15th June 1941. © The Anais Nin Trust; Bruce Robinson to Richard E. Grant, ‘I’m getting too old for illness’, 1987. © Bruce Robinson; Harvey Rowe to Scott Williams, ‘Smithsonian Barbie’, 1994. © Harvey Rowe; Anne Taylor to the Guardian, ‘We are in a climate emergency’, July 2023 © Anne Taylor; Dylan Thomas to Caitlin Macnamara, ‘I’m going to mope about you in the bath’, 17th July 1936. © The Dylan Thomas Trust; Various to Batman, ‘Batman is still and will continue to be a perfect physical specimen’, 1960s. © Bill Adler, from ‘Fan Mail 66’; Auberon Waugh to Lionel Grigson, ‘I will end with a cordial invitation’, October 1977. © The Estate of Auberon Waugh, by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop; Philip Woolcock to The Telegraph, ‘My thoughts are with two remarkable women’, July 2023. © Philip Woolcock;