From The Times
December 27, 2007
'I appreciate your gift more than I can say'
Thank-you letters: the last bastion in an epidemic of discourtesy? They certainly make a big difference
by Valerie Grove
Have you written your thank-you letters yet? Mother’s words continue to dog most of us for life. They hover like a black cloud over the season of festive giving and partying. We all vaguely expect a letter of thanks, but find them a crashing bore to write. Thanks sent immediately are thanks redoubled, we were told. “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks” – Saint Ambrose.
The thank-you letter is a last bastion in what Mary Killen (The Spectator’s witty social problem-solver) has called an “epidemic of discourtesy”. The postal strike this year did its best to kill off the personal letter, but for my generation, whose youth was punctuated with billets doux and penfriendship, a letter remains a tangible, portable, idiosyncratic and expressive form of communication. Princess Diana – who would now have been 46 – was probably one of the last of those well-brought up gels, or “chicks”, who never failed to write enthusiastic thanks in her girlishly round but emphatic hand.
more at link...
No comments:
Post a Comment