Shaun Usher

One year ago, I listened to one of the Letters of Note collections for the first time. These are collections of letters, the first ones compiled online and then published as books and audiobooks that became so popular that there are live events that fill places like the Royal Albert Hall. The editor is [[Shaun Usher]].
The one I listened to last year was [Letters of Note - Music] and I just absolutely adored it, so it was high time I listened to another one.

The letters in this collection span more than 200 years and were written by people from many walks of life. There are famous writers such as Nelson Mandela, Napoleon, Frida Kahlo and Ludwig van Beethoven, but also people who are not that well known.
The letters were brought to life by stellar readers such as Juliet Stevenson, Mark Strong, Clarke Peters and Toby Jones.

Because I loved the previous one I listened to so much, I went into this with high expectations, and they were mostly met, although this time the topic made for a different experience: Listening to love letters means to learn about some people's most private thoughts, often vulnerable and fragile, and sometimes it was a bit hard to understand the letters without knowing the writers and their particular situation. I would also have wished for a more varied selection, as it seems to be on the heavy side, featuring a lot of sad and desperate letters - there must be more joyful love letters out there?
But despite this criticism, it was a stellar experience to listen to this audiobook and I will definitely continue listening to this series. There are so many topics to choose from!

Reading the letters as a book, including, as I understand, facsimiles and pictures, must be wonderful as well, but I just love listening to them, especially because of the fantastic performance of the readers.

The audiobook includes some audio-exclusive material from live events: Three letters read by Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch and Louise Brealey and the song "Love Letter" performed by Nick Cave.… (más)

Letters of Note ist eine Sammlung von 125 der unterhaltsamsten, inspirierendsten und ungewöhnlichsten Briefe der Weltgeschichte. Das Buch basiert auf der sensationell populären Website gleichen Namens – einer Art Online-Museum des Schriftverkehrs, das bereits von über 70 Millionen Menschen besucht wurde.
Von Virginia Woolfs berührendem Abschiedsbrief an ihren Mann bis zum höchsteigenen Eierkuchen-Rezept von Queen Elizabeth II. an US-Präsident Eisenhower, vom ersten aktenkundigen Gebrauch des Ausdrucks »OMG« in einem Brief an Winston Churchill bis zu Gandhis Friedensersuch an Adolf Hitler und von Iggy Pops wundervollem Brief an einen jungen weiblichen Fan in Not bis hin zum außergewöhnlichen Bewerbungsschreiben von Leonardo da Vinci zelebriert und dokumentiert Letters of Note die Faszination der geschriebenen Korrespondenz mit all dem Humor, der Ernsthaftigkeit, der Traurigkeit und Verrücktheit, die unser Leben ausmachen.… (más)