London Letters
I’ve been on a tear with letter-writing lately, and at the same time trying to restrict my writing to those who sincerely appreciate the effort and intend to reciprocate. For this reason, I’ve been looking for places to get more penpals who are dedicated to the hobby. After seeing a terrific writeup of the London Letters Writing Society on The Bartleby, I sent off for my own box, which promised to connect me with a wide and deep international cache of fellow writers.
The stationery itself, whilst of good quality, was extremely expensive. The care and aesthetic that went into the packaging far exceeded the utility of the enclosed materials, which consisted of matching envelopes, stationery sheets and note cards. The note cards might be appropriate as thank you cards or invitations, but not for correspondence. The sheets were sufficient for 2 or 3 of my letters. Moreover, the other stationery available from the website is more of the same, with no designs that stray far from the plain pages included in the inaugural kit.
The biggest disappointment, however, was the “connection” service of the “Writing Society.” I asked to be connected with as many penpals as possible, as this was an implied possibility in the introductory email. I received one email contact and that individual promised to write me but never reciprocated with their own address. When I contacted London Letters about this they gave me a second email address to which I also sent my mailing address, but received no reply and had assumed they were also flaking, but after a follow-up to London Letters I got a message that the second contact had in fact sent their first letter (though they strangely never replied to my email directly). I have since received said letter and replied. But all in all that means I possibly got one new penpal from this Society, which is quite anticlimactic, as I’d expected a lot more from the name. A better system would be to have a product that comes with an authorization to share physical address information in the checkout, and making this available to everyone who purchases the product. Those with privacy concerns could sign up for a different product.
All in all a great idea: stationery supplies and a penpal connection service combined, but at this point it doesn’t appear to perform the service advertised on the tin. A quick note that as someone who’s been doxxed and stalked online I really appreciate the privacy concerns of sharing personal details and I do encourage everyone who gets deep into penpalling to get a PO box if possible.
