With the awful news of Denmark deciding to cease all letter deliveries at the end of 2025 I was approached by The Telegraph newspaper to comment about the decision.

Click HERE to read the piece by Pieter Snepvangers on The Telegraph website.

I am always truly flattered to be asked my opinion about letter writing by leading newspapers, and for any of them to be included at all, but seeing as I gave up my lunchtime to ponder the situation I thought I’d share all of what I provided, below. The link also gives an address where you can write a letter to the CEO of Royal Mail for FREE, if you felt inclined.

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I find the idea of a developed country saying “we aren’t delivering letters anymore” mindblowing and absurd. And even more so that there isn’t anyone willing and able to stop them. I appreciate the world has “gone digital” for better or worse but the sticking point for me is 1) our postal services are just that – a SERVICE, so trying to make money out of it is probably (but not necessarily in this case) a non-starter, and 2) if you go down the route of “making money” out of it then surely you have to MARKET or PROMOTE the thing you are trying to make money out of, which it appears postal services do very little of either. What is the agenda for running them into the ground? Yes letter volumes have declined but only in parallel to a lack of promotion and soaring prices. I had a letter today from Royal Mail telling me “we will soon be making changes to some of our prices … coming into effect on 31st March”. So yes your fears are well-founded. [Pieter was fearing the worst for our postal service]

I know some might argue “it’s just a hobby, get over it”, but I honestly do believe it’s so much more than that. A Society member helped out with a letter writing session at a Primary school recently and the pupils were all inspired to write letters to friends and family members after school according to feedback from parents, some of whom hadn’t really enjoyed writing before that. I really do feel letter writing is as culturally important as reading books and 1) who among us would say reading books is a waste of time and 2) the PR for books is phenomenal – publishers, festivals, celebrity authors, book launches across all TV and social media, World Book Day coverage etc. Why is reclaiming writing for ourselves via the medium of handwritten letters becoming a preserve of the wealthy or before long for none of us. I say that but I hope we all continue to write letters even if we have to hand deliver them ourselves. This doesn’t even touch on the isolation of people without computers or smart-phones, people in remote places, and those who have a right to say they don’t want to go digital.

Sadly though I just don’t think anyone is going to be able to stop our postal services’ demise, do you? We live in a time where “leave it long enough and they’ll forget or give up about *insert issue here*” is the norm. But then again maybe if we all have to go down fighting, protecting our postal service is as worthy a cause as any. Here’s an address if any readers want to send a letter to Royal Mail for FREE! 

Send a Letter to Royal Mail for FREE! – The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society

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Anyway, many thanks to Pieter and The Telegraph for covering the story.

Dinah