Books by and for independent women

Letters You Never Sent

The brainchild of Zakia Uddin, ably assisted by literary event organiser Alex Spears, Letters You Never Sent is a new addition to London’s growing literary scene. Inspired by the true diary readings of Cringe and My Teenage Diary, Letters You Never Sent is designed to showcase fictional (or semi-fictional) letters on a given theme, read by their authors.

Last week’s launch night was built around letters to bands and musicians that had never been sent, and it promised exactly what Uddin was aiming for – the potential for humour and nostalgia as the writers shared their youthful scribblings to former idols.

The tiny venue – the basement of Hackney’s Railroad Café – had the air of a Hamburg beer cellar: sweaty walls and sweatier patrons crammed on benches for each hour-long half. An interval chat with Spears gave me the hope that the next event would be in a bigger space with proper chairs.

But on to the acts. The evening kicked off with Matt Thorne reading his letter to Transvision Vamp’s Wendy James, following that with a short story on an unrelated theme.

Sarah Drinkwater’s engaging letter from her ‘pretentious’ 15-year-old self to PJ Harvey nicely evoked the mid-1990s music scene and how our love of music can define and affect us. Sean Cody Mahoney also did this with a beautiful poem to Neil Young, whose After the Goldrush, ‘spoke to me, not through me’.

Jack Scott’s hilarious and moving letter to Metallica (‘thank you for taking care of my 13-year-old self’) offered the right mix of nostalgia and humour (especially as he held up the cheque he’d written to Lars Ulrich to compensate for any royalties he’d deprived the band of), as did teenage novelist Ben Brooks’ letter from a 10-year old boy to Eminem, which captured a child’s tone and use of language with skill and authenticity.

Jesse Darling offered a personal ode to a cross-dressing teenage relationship changing with the music she and her equally misfit boyfriend listened to, while Niven Govinden told a short music-based story, which could have been read better – too many stumblings, possibly as a result of printing out in ‘the world’s smallest font’. Rookie mistake.

The event was hosted by Vanessa Pelz-Sharpe who offered mostly musical-related vignettes between acts; sadly she lost points by demonstrating a dearth of wit and originality in her ill-judged criticisms of south London. I’ve got a sense of humour about my ’hood but it’s gotta be funny for me to laugh.

I have to confess to being a stickler for the rules, and I want Letters You Never Sent to be just that. If I want short stories (and very often I do) I’ll go to one of the many existing events in London, especially White Rabbit’s Are You Sitting Comfortably? (brilliantly hosted by the amazing duo Bernadette Russell and Gareth Brierley) or Storytails by fellow For Books’ Sake contributor Gabriella Apicella.

Spears explained to me that published writers would usually be allowed to read extracts from novels or short stories alongside letters, and this does seem to me to be a sweetener to get them to appear.

Hopefully, as the event takes off (which it undoubtedly will) and new, unpublished writers come on board, we might stick to the letters: the combination of the personal and the nostalgic, mixed with a bit of fiction and self-deprecating humour, is a winning formula that I’d like to see this event stay with. I’ve already started writing a letter to my teenage self, in anticipation of the next theme night.

There will be events every two months, check here for venues and themes as they’re announced. All proceeds to the children’s literacy project Hackney Pirates.

Jackie Downs

(Image via _Blume’s Flickr photostream)