Letters Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2022

Tony Robinson

My Dear Ada

Lewis Carroll to Adelaide Paine

O, Excellent Air-Bag!

Robert Southey to Tom Southey

Jordan Stephens

Thank you and I hope you choke

Beatles Fan to Nike

A static present, surrounded by a wall of anxiety

Fernando Pessoa Mario de Sa-Carneiro

Salena Godden

Fortunately, I had my new radio

Mary Grant to A. Walker

Louise Brealey

I shall always be with you

Milada Horakova to her daughter

Such bosh

Jessica Mitford Maya Angelou

Jess Philips

A dangerous cult now runs Britain

Tony Mabbott to the Guardian

Ought women not to be abolished altogether?

Clementine Churchill to The Times

Benedict Cumberbatch

Honestly, I am embarrassed just writing this letter

Andrew Forrester, an open letter

It would be easier and pleasanter to drown myself

George Bernard Shaw Various

Let’s hope it wasn’t all just a bit too late

Ted Hughes to Nicholas Hughes

Kit Harington

I cannot envisage a life without loving you

John Berryman to Chris Haynes

I have had my eye on you

Simon Fallowfield to Mary Foster

Clarke Peters

There is a singular and perpetual charm in a letter of yours

Thomas Bailey Aldrich to Edward S. Morse

Denise Gough

The loss of you lingers

Karin Cook to Joan Cook Carpenter

I want to love first, and live incidentally

Zelda Sayre to F. Scott Fitzgerald

Miriam Margolyes

The loss of you lingers

Queen Victoria to Princess Victoria

I am going to put you to a test

Ayn Rand to her niece

Himesh Patel

I don’t want to be alone

Rupert Brooke to Cathleen Nesbitt

I am unable to accept your rejection at this time

Paul Devlin to Various colleges

Miriam Margolyes and Clarke Peters

The thermometer will burst

Anais Nin and Henry Miller

John Kerry

Wind the clock

E. B. White to Mr. Nadeau

Music

Tom Odell

Just Another Thing That We Don’t Talk About

Max Richter

Origins

Lisa from Ibeyi

Waves

Celeste

Strange

John Berryman to Chris Haynes, ‘I cannot envisage a life without loving you’, 1947. © The Estate of John Berryman; Clementine Churchill to The Times, ‘Ought women not to be abolished altogether?’, March 30th, 1912. With thanks to The Master, Fellows and Scholars of Churchill College, Cambridge; Karin Cook to Joan Cook Carpenter. ‘The loss of you lingers’, 1999 © Karin Cook; Paul Devlin to various colleges, ‘I am unable to accept your rejection at this time’, © Paul Devlin; Andrew Forrester, ‘Honestly, I am embarrassed just writing this letter’, April 2018. © Andrew Forrester; Ted Hughes to Nicholas Hughes, ‘Let’s hope it wasn’t all just a bit too late’, 20th February 1998. © the Estate of Ted Hughes; Tony Mabbott to the Guardian, ‘A dangerous cult now runs Britain’, May 2021. © Tony Mabbott; Jessica Mitford to Maya Angelou, ‘Such bosh’, April 30th 1992. © the Estate of Jessica Mitford; Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, ‘The thermometer will burst’, August 1932. © The Anais Nin Trust and the Estate of Henry Miller. Reproduced by permission of the Anais Nin Trust and the Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London, on behalf of The Beneficiaries of the Estate of Henry Miller; Fernando Pessoa to Mario de Sa-Carneiro, ‘A static present, surrounded by a wall of anxiety’, 14th March 1916. Translation © Richard Zenith; Ayn Rand to Connie Papurt, 22nd May 1949” by Ayn Rand. Used by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Copyright © 1997 All Rights reserved; George Bernard Shaw to Various, reproduced by permission of the Society of Authors, on behalf of the Estate of George Bernard Shaw; E. B. White to Mr. Nadeau, ‘Wind the clock’, March 30th, 1973. © the White Literary LLC;

Hassan Akkad / Little Amal

Dear Amal

Various to Little Amal

Sue Perkins

We are all terribly sorry

Phyllida Law to Mother-in-Law

Don’t try to make yourself into somebody perfect

Clarice Lispector to her sister

Stephen Mangan

Any modern poet will do

Adrian Mole to the BBC

That is the last time I inconvenience myself for my children

Evelyn Waugh to Laura Waugh

Julian Clary

That’s showbiz

Julian Clary to Nick

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

Mozart to his wife

Louise Brealey

How it hurts to write this

Eleanor Wimbish to her son

I want nobody but you for my lover

Katherine Mansfield to John Murry

Toby Jones

I consider reading the greatest bargain in the world

Gene Roddenberry to a young Star Trek fan

Farewell, wretch that I loved

George Bernard Shaw to Mrs Patrick Campbell

Sheila Atim

Dear Us

Toni Morrison to Black women

Dear Sir

Sarah-Louise Jordan to an admirer

Graham Norton

Go over and punch him

Graham Norton to Various

I am distinctly conscious of the contents of my head

Joseph Conrad to his editor

Dawn O’Porter

Have a happy period

Wendi Aarons to James Thatcher

Sheila Atim, Louise Brealey, Dawn O’Porter, Benedict Cumberbatch, Julian Clary

How much are your melons?

Various to Blue Peter

Jonathan Pryce

There is a great deal of beauty in the world

Rainer Maria Rilke to Helmuth Westhoff

I had a job to do

Dr. Luis Alvarez to his son

Benedict Cumberbatch

We all feel like that now and then

Archibald Kerr to Reginald Pembroke

IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER

Bill Safire to H. R. Haldeman

Krishnan Guru-Murthy

The High Road

B Perry to Metro

For the sake of humanity

Gandhi to Hitler

Dolly Alderton

It’s never going to be easy

Hannah Strong to her mum

Dawn O’Porter and Dolly Alderton

The Stones are dirty and sloppy and they repugnate me

Kathy to Pam

Music

HoneyFeet

Border Bodies

Marlon Williams

He Wawata

Anna Lapwood (organ)

Cornfield Chase, from Hans Zimmer’s score for Intersellar

Wendi Aarons to James Thatcher, Proctor and Gamble, ‘Have a Happy Period’, 2007, © Wendi Aarons; Pamela Des Barres and Kathy & Stevie, ‘The Stones are dirty and sloppy and they repugnate me’, May 1965. © Pamela Des Barres; Nick Burchill to the Empress Hotel, 2018. © Nick Burchill; John le Carré to David Greenway, 25th November 2020. © Viereck Ltd.; Julian Clary to Nick, ‘That’s showbiz’, 1992. © Julian Clary; Sarah-Louise Jordan, ‘Dear Sir’, © Sarah-Louise Jordan; Phyllida Law to her mother-in-law, ‘We are all terribly sorry’. © Phyllida Law; Clarice Lispector to Tania Kaufmann, ‘Don’t try to make yourself into somebody perfect’, 6th January 1948. From: Clarice Lispector: Letter ‘Para Tania Kaufmann, Berna 6 de janerio de 1948’, Todas as Cartas © 2019, Paulo Gurgel Valente. Translation © Ana Fletcher; Toni Morrison to Black Women, ‘Dear Us’, 1985. Copyright © 1985 by the Estate of Chloe A. Morrison. Performed and recorded by permission of ICM Partners; Hannah Strong to her mum, ‘It’s never going to be easy’, January, 2018. © Hannah Strong; Adrian Mole to the BBC, ‘Any modern poet will do’, 12th June 1982. From ‘The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole’ (1984) © Sue Townsend; Adrian Mole to the BBC, ‘Our telephone has been disconnected again’, 14th February 1985. From ‘The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole’ (1989) © Sue Townsend; Letter to Laura Waugh dated 25th August 1945 by Evelyn Waugh. Copyright © 1945, Evelyn Waugh, used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited.