The Elsie Drake Letters

by Elsie Drake, Robert Popper

240 pages, Hardcover

Published February 4, 2025

Reviews

[Jonathan Chambers]

A funny and heartwarming little read. Elsie spends her days writing to various people, offering her services to community and seeking advice on everything from meat to hedgehogs. The replies that come through and often supportive but realistic - no, the zoo can’t send her parrot meat to try - and patient in light of her always enclosing a little gift of £5.

[Liam Crook-Chambers]

A hilarious and entertaining read. I really enjoyed this book. I love Elsie!

[Claire Booksnink]

I absolutely loved this and was so convinced that Elsie Drake was a real person. This book is hilarious and the replies to the letters featured in these were brilliant.
This is not my usual type of book but I bloody loved it

[Sharon Greenwood]

I went into The Elsie Drake Letters expecting a lot of laughs, but unfortunately, it just didn't live up to my expectations. The biggest issue for me was that the book got repetitive extremely quickly, and the schoolboy humour just wasn't to my personal taste.

Reading it all in one sitting did it absolutely no favours either. The novelty of the prank letters wore off pretty quickly, and in hindsight, it probably would have been much better to spread it out over several sittings rather than rushing through it.

That being said, because it is broken up into short, bite-sized letters, it could make a fun loo read for your friends and family to dip into now and then.

Overall, a bit of a disappointing read for me, but maybe better enjoyed in very short bursts.

[Mobo]

I can’t believe so many people and companies continued to entertain such lunacy. Some of the letters Elsie wrote are so ridiculous I have no idea how someone thought of them, she really feels like a living person.

Whilst the book can be hilarious, it might be best to read it over a period of days or weeks to get maximum enjoyment.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦]

Reflections and lessons learned/the content of this book made me feel…

Joyful! With hope for a society willing to communicate in its most polite sense wherever it can…

Apr 26 update: still as daft, comical and heart filled as before!