Past event
Date:
3 September 2026
Letters Live takes to the Royal Festival Hall stage for a special show in honour of the National Year of Reading.
Profits from ticket revenue are donated to the National Literary Trust, who empower people with the literacy skills they need to succeed in life.
(Click dates to expand/collapse)
Alphabetti Spaghetti
Mrs J. Blackford to Viz
Can a solicitor sue his own client?
Miles Kington to Bevis Nathan
It bangs one about until one is senseless
Queen Mother to Edith Sitwell
Directions for coughing, sneezing, or moving, before the King and Queen
Fanny Burney to Hetty Burney
Barack Obama letter
If you promise to keep reading, I promise to keep writing
Christopher Paul Curtis to Akmed
I’m allowed to be a woman who ages
Dolly Alderton to a reader
Shall I poison him?
Peter G. to Town & Country
The spaghetti is going to be marvellous
Edna St. Vincent Millay to Eugenio Lanfranchi
A book is a friend forever and ever
Susan Orlean to a fellow reader
One by one the lights go out
Alexander Woollcott to Lucy
Farewell, wretch that I loved
George Bernard Shaw to Mrs Patrick Campbell
Someday I’ll make it
Dolly Parton to her parents
I will end your reign before it begins
Connor Relyea to the robots that will eventually replace us
I AM NOW ON CLOUD 9,000
Marjorie Fossa to Elvis Presley
It’s not as if a seminal work can be tossed off overnight
Christopher Reid to Blake Morrison
Blake Morrison to Christopher Reid
All I ask of you now is to let me go
Käthe Kollwitz to her family
It is the absolute truth
Patrick Mynhardt to his friends
We need you buddy
Mitch Russell to the 9 year old she saw practicing karate in line at McDonald’s
The tiger is in the library
Susan Sontag to Jorge Luis Borges
ME HAVE COOKIE
Cookie Monster to Bahlsen HQ
What would I do without you?
Danielle Rackley to her anxiety
Six o’fucking clock!?
Matt Coyne to CBeebies
I want to be the water that bathes you
Frida Kahlo to Josep Bartoli
Goodbye, Dad
Rob to his dad
Scattered Black and Whites
Lippy kids
Wildflowers (Dolly Parton cover)
Medley: In The End and Reunion