Forget heart emojis! Author reveals how to write the perfect old-fashioned love letter
It's a forgotten art that has long been replaced by emails, texts and social media rants. But author Simon Garfield is keen to bring the forgotten tradition of old-fashioned handwritten love letters back. Simon said: 'Having written, studied and collected letters for years, for me there is no finer and more effective way to express your love for another than via a love letter.'
1. Take your time
Give yourself a little time: This is not a tweet.
2. Be yourself
Jane Austen once said that the best letter is a 'talking' one: Write as if you were chatting intimately to your friend over tea.
3. Be intimate
Katharine Mansfield said: 'This is not a letter, but my arms around you for a moment.
4. Write from the heart
A letter gives you a chance to say things you're too tongue-tied to say in person.
5. Don't use scented notepaper
So 70s, and not all will share your taste in citrus top notes.
6. Draw your own cartoon
Charles Schultz wrote special messages to his paramour in his Peanuts strips.
7. Don't be needy
Never plead, and remember your sense of humour.
8. Add personal touches
If you're sending a card rather than a letter, find an illustration or photograph that will mean something.
9. Be bold
'I am dying so for the love of you...you have made me dazed and thunderstruck!' Marcus Aurelius, writing in 140 AD. 10. Be on trend
In Victorian times, an upside-down stamp on the upper left of an envelope meant 'I love you' to some, but 'I don't love you' to others. Break-ups followed.
11. Mind your handwriting
You don't want the object of your affections to be distracted by it.
12. Show passion
Borrow some words from the similarly smitten. Beethoven, perhaps, writing to his Immortal Beloved: 'Never another one can own my heart, never - never!'