Past event
Date:
3 August 2019
During the first weekend of 2019, Letters Live returned to Oxfordshire to entertain the crowds at the picturesque Wilderness Festival – the third visit in as many years. As headliners of the festival’s Talks and Debates programme, Letters Live took over the gorgeous Atrium stage to wow the audience with a stellar cast of readers.
Wilderness is an award-winning festival of music, food, arts, learning, literature and rejuvenation which began in 2011 amongst the lakes, forests and parkland of Oxfordshire’s exquisite Cornbury Estate.
(Click dates to expand/collapse)
Cease and desist
The Beano to Jacob Rees Mogg
With utter love
Rik Mayall to Billie-Jo and David
Strip down, facing me
Tony Capezza to The Lowell Sun
What gloomy tidings about the CRABS
Patrick Leigh Fermor to Enrica Soma
Cremains
Lydia Davis to Funeral parlour
Seat 29E
A customer to Continental Airlines
We formed only one being
Maud Gonne to Yeats
We all feel like that now and then
Archibald Kerr to Reginald Pembroke
Herbs is his Majesty’s
Lee “Scratch” Perry to Tokyo’s Minister of Justice
Yours with real concern
Graham Chapman to The bank
No funny business
F. S. Coldrick to Daily Mail
Fuck the art world pressures
Lucy Lippard to A young woman artist
Dear Internet
Tina Fey to Internet commenters
I’m amputating you
Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera
Even my bones seem to cry for you
Georgia O’Keefe to Alfred Stieglitz
Dear Stranger
Remedios Varo to A stranger
I am in receipt of your final demand
Naval Officer to A creditor
I love her more than anything
Martha Gellhorn to Lucy Moorehead
You can’t eradicate violence by using more violence
Yayoi Kusama to Richard Nixon
Take him
Cassy Murdoch to Draft Board
Blow ’em away, kid
Nick Cave to Ptolemy
How beautiful!
Salvador Dali to Federico Garcia Lorca
Dear Lupin
Roger Mortimer to Son
Enough is enough
Marguerite Louise D’Orleans to Cosimo III De Medici
You are superior to all
Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo
I was horrified
A reader to Viz
Perhaps on our way to Mars
Cary Grant to His daughter
I want to crawl up inside you
Patrick to Jessica (Star Wars love letter)
You are part of me
Laura
The High Road
B. Perry to Metro
I miss my biggest heart
Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert
A gross failure of responsibility
Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson
Wait for the stanza until it comes
Yuan Mei to A friend
Europe is home
Various to The Times
Woman of the Year
Lydia Davis to ABI
When Death Comes
Aidan Kingwell to Mary Oliver
I told you he was crazy
A disgruntled neighbour to the landlord of Hunter S. Thompson
Dear Editor
Adrian Piper to Various editors
The worst specimen I have met
D. Blakey to Irish Lights
I know, Mother, I know
Anne Sexton to Linda Sexton
Christopher’s choking!
Karen A. to Dear Dolly
Maybe we should ban suits
Henry Stewart to Guardian
I do hope she is all right
Gerald(ine) Vinestock to <em<The Times