'The best letters feel necessary, as though the writer couldn’t not write them': Shaun Usher opens the envelope on 13 years of Letters Live

There are many sentences that I think about on an almost daily basis, and most of them come from a letter that Hunter S. Thompson wrote to Anthony Burgess. They involve lizards, hoodlums, thugs, ‘a 50,000 word novella about the condition humane’, typewriters and piazzas. I get a lot of emails, plenty of which are useless, and it’s only a mix of time constraints and politeness that stops me from responding to most of them with this amalgam of insults that Dr Thompson concocted while running the National Affairs Desk at Rolling Stone.

The first time I encountered this elite piece of correspondence was at the Freemason’s Hall, when it was read aloud to me (and many others) by Dominic West. The event was my first experience of Letters Live, the epistolary event that was first created by Shaun Usher and Jamie Byng in 2013. Other readings from that night included Andrew Scott reading DO, a letter from Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse; Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to the children of Xavier High School in New York City, brought to life by Sir Ian McKellen; and Noel Coward’s correspondence to Marlene Dietrich, imploring her to ‘NOT be so bloody vulnerable’, perfectly executed by Benedict Cumberbatch.

So much of that night remains in my memory (particularly Vonnegut’s apology for not making a public appearance, due to his resembling an ‘iguana’ at the age of 84). But that’s the thing with letters, isn’t it? They stick with you. They stick with you because they take great care and effort to write, and because when you read them you understand that someone has stopped and made the effort to write to you.

‘A letter asks for patience, from both the writer and the reader,’ Shaun tells me, via email. ‘It allows for uncertainty, contradiction, and vulnerability in a way instant communication rarely does. Letters capture people mid-thought, without hindsight. You meet someone exactly where they were, on a particular day, feeling whatever they were feeling.’

Shaun’s obsession with letters began in 2002, from a place of love. ‘My now-wife and I fell in love largely by letter,’ he says. ‘Writing to one another slowly, carefully, and without an audience changed how I understood what letters could hold. That curiosity soon spilled into reading other people’s correspondence, and before long I was completely hooked.’

In 2009, he launched the website Letters of Note, which then led to a bestselling book in 2013 (‘I never imagined how widely it would resonate’). It was at the launch of that book that Letters Live was born, when Byng, the CEO and publisher of Canongate, suggested ‘bringing the letters off the page and reading them aloud, simply and without embellishment’. That evening was the first Letters Live. ‘Something happened in the room,’ Shaun says. ‘Hearing these voices aloud gave the letters a new kind of life, and it was immediately clear there was something worth continuing.’

And continue it has, with around 90 shows both in the UK and internationally. From humble beginnings at a book launch, Letters Live has performed in London, Los Angeles and New York City. In 2016, at the Calais ‘Jungle’, Jude Law and Matt Berry read letters written by refugees, and during the Covid Lockdown, a digital event was broadcast from the Roundhouse. Festival appearances include Hay, Glastonbury and Wilderness.

The most recent event was at the Queen’s Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, London, in association with Cunard, where the theme of the evening was a nautical one, and featured performances from Harriet Walter, Cumberbatch, West, Damian Lewis, Louise Brealey (who, like Cumberbatch, has been a long-time contributor), Toby Jones, Meera Syal and James Corden. Music was performed by Laura Mvula and Bea and her Business. The next event is at the Royal Albert Hall on April 22, and on May 14, Letters Live returns to New York City.

Having attended a few shows, what always stands out to me is the power of the written word. It would be easy to be overawed by the presence of the A-list performers, but the real stars were, are, and always will be the letters themselves. In a digital world, nothing captivates quite like correspondence.

Were you surprised by the popularity?

Yes, very much so. Letters Live was never conceived as a long-term project. That first show was simply a launch event, an experiment, and we all assumed it would end there. What surprised me wasn’t just that people came, but how they listened. People were willing to sit still and give their full attention to someone else’s words, written in another time, for another person. The response since has been consistently humbling. Audiences return, performers ask to be involved, and the format continues to find new rooms and new contexts. The recent show with Cunard was a good example of that: letters shaped by long journeys and time at sea finding their way back into a shared, live space, and being met with the same quiet attentiveness.

What are some of your favourite letters that have been read out at an event?

That’s always a difficult question, because favourites tend to shift with time and context. Letters read recently often linger longest. At our most recent show, Dame Harriet Walter read a wonderful letter by the American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, written at sea, full of wit, physicality, and delight in the experience of travel. Damian Lewis, meanwhile, transformed himself entirely in a letter written by the pirate Henry Every, bringing a surprising mixture of menace and theatrical flair to the stage. One of the pleasures of Letters Live is the sheer variety of performances, and not knowing which as-yet-unused letter, or which upcoming reading, will soon become a favourite. We’ve barely scratched the surface.

How do you find the letters?

They come from everywhere. I spend a lot of time in archives, libraries, museums, and buried inside published collections of correspondence. I also have thousands of letters in my own library at home, which I dip into constantly. We’re also often given access to private or institutional archives held by our partners, which can open up whole worlds of previously unseen correspondence. For our most recent show, Cunard shared material from their own maritime archives, which was a real gift. Often it’s a footnote or passing reference that leads somewhere unexpected.

Obviously one of the great pulls of the show are the celebrities. How do you choose them? Do they reach out to you?

It’s a mixture. Sometimes we approach people we admire, and sometimes performers come to us after seeing a show. The best readings are the ones where the performer almost disappears and becomes a conduit for the voice on the page. When that happens, the room leans in.

Do you have a favourite performer?

I genuinely don’t. We’ve been incredibly lucky. Different performers bring different energies, and part of the pleasure is never quite knowing how a letter will sound until it’s read aloud for the first time.

What does the success of the programme tell us about the art of letter writing? Is it a dying art?

Letter writing is certainly less common in everyday life. But the success of Letters Live suggests the appetite for slowness, depth, and sincerity hasn’t gone anywhere. People still want words that have been thought through. Writing shaped by time rather than speed. Letters may be written less often now, but when we encounter them, they still carry enormous weight.

Any exciting plans for the future? You’ve done the UK, New York, Los Angeles, Glastonbury. Anywhere else?

There are always conversations bubbling away. One of the pleasures of Letters Live is how well it travels, both geographically and emotionally. I can’t say too much yet, but there are certainly places we’d love to take it next.

Do you write a lot of letters yourself?

Everyone presumes, understandably, that I write letters on a daily basis. The truth is, I spend far more time reading and listening to other people’s letters than writing my own. That said, sailing on the Queen Mary 2 recently did something I hadn’t expected. While staying in the ship’s Grill Suite, the pace slowed, distractions fell away, and I found myself reaching for a pen. It was a reminder of why letters existed in the first place.

What do you think makes a great letter?

Honesty. A great letter isn’t trying to perform. It’s trying to say what needs to be said. Whether it’s funny, furious, tender, or mundane, the best letters feel necessary, as though the writer couldn’t not write them. That urgency, that truthfulness, is what allows a letter to last.

The Letters Live in association with Cunard show was a celebration of sea voyages and the exclusive sanctuaries of Cunard's Grill Suites.

The particular edition of Letters Live drew inspiration from the calmness of sea travel, and the human need to stay connected across oceans during crossings. As experienced by Shaun Usher on his recent voyage aboard 'Queen Mary 2', the experience is shaped by spaces designed for reflection, such as the Grill Suites, where generous living areas, private balconies, and attentive concierge and butler services create an atmosphere of calm and elegance.

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