“Thank you for your champagne”

Bad news and good news. Bad news first. The book of Letters of Note, the wonderful website featuring the most charming, unusual historic letters, has been delayed and will not be out before Christmas. Boo. Good news now. The book is still coming out – in May 2013 – and the delay means there will be even more letters than anticipated. 

Letters in the book include:

* Hunter S. Thompson’s furious memo to a film executive that starts ‘Listen, you lazy bitch…’

* Steve Martin’s ‘personalised’ form letter to a fan

* The letter of a Kamikaze pilot to his two young children, written the night before his mission

* A 9th century form letter from China used to apologise for having drunk too much at a dinner party

* A memo about some of the surprising candidates for Star Trek: The Next Generation

And – favourite! – the one above. Worth waiting for.