Cover of Letters of Note: Mothers

Letters of Note: Mothers

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Letters of Note: Mothers

By: Shaun Usher
Narrated by: Adrian Edmondson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Clarke Peters, Danny Huston, Ferdinand Kingsley, Helen McCrory, Jude Law, Juliet Stevenson, Louise Brealey, Meera Syal, Miriam Margolyes, Natascha McElhone, Neil Gaiman, Simon Callow, Toby Jones
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Summary

In Letters of Note: Mothers, Shaun Usher gathers together exceptional missives by and to mothers, celebrating the joy and grief, humour and frustration, wisdom and sacrifice the role brings to both parent and child.
A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Louise Brealey, Simon Callow, Crystal Clarke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Adrian Edmondson, Neil Gaiman, Toby Jones, Ferdinand Kingsley, Jude Law, Helen McCrory, Natascha McElhone, Miriam Margolyes, Clarke Peters, Juliet Stevenson and Meera Syal.

The collection features letters by Caitlin Moran, Sylvia Plath, Martin Luther King Jr., Louisa May Alcott, Laura Dern, Bette Davis, Martha Gellhorn and many more.

Letters of Note: Mothers also includes audio exclusive bonus content drawn from recordings made at performances of Letters Live, the live events series produced by Canongate in partnership with SunnyMarch and Shaun Usher. Savour Carey Mulligan reading Chrissy Hart’s letter to J.K. Rowling at London’s Freemasons’ Hall and Anjelica Huston reading Bette Davis’ letter to B.D. Hyman at LA’s Ace Hotel.
A donation will be made to The National Literacy Trust – one of the regular partner charities for Letters Live – for each audiobook sold.

 Memoirs, Diaries & Correspondence
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Reviews

"The letters range from the famous to the quietly heroic. None is more poignant than that written in 1950 by the Czech socialist politician Milada Horáková to her sixteen-year-old daughter. Horáková had been arrested and sentenced to death for treason, and the letter was written the night before her execution. Heartbreaking"
"Praise for Shaun Usher: Another mailbag stuffed with funny, heartbreaking and passionate letters . . . engaging, eclectic, geekily and gleefully enthusiastic and laugh-out-loud funny"
"Shaun Usher's More Letters of Note mines the archives for more gems of the epistolary arts"
"Funny, tragic, brilliantly incisive, historic, lyrical, romantic and studiedly offensive, this stupendous compendium of letters ancient and modern is my book of the year. You will never tire of it'" (STEPHEN FRY)
"From the genuinely funny: Marge Simpson duelling with First Lady Barbara Bush to the truly heart-breaking: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's last goodbye to their children before execution. Usher's book is unlike anything else you have read. After all, where else can you find out why Norman Mailer refused money to his father, or how Janis Joplin felt before breaking America? Exactly"
"Funny, shocking and poignant, More Letters of Note must be one of the most entertaining books of the year"
"Some of the letters will make you laugh, other heartbreaking examples will make you cry"
"Reading through them is addictive, like dipping into a bag of variously tempting assorted candies, knowing that the next one will always bring surprise and pleasure. Usher has an evident knack for selecting letters that land with the force of a good short story, with personalities and dramatic arcs emerging swiftly, from just a page or two. Many of the writers are famous people, caught in a moment of accessibility and rawness or off-the-cuff virtuosity"
"A gloriously presented compilation"
"The literary equivalent of a box of chocolates - bite-sized and pure addictive pleasure . . . The result is beautifully produced, with photographs and colour facsimiles of much of the correspondence. A gorgeous Christmas present"
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