Did Anyone Else See That Coming...?

Unpublished Letters to The Daily Telegraph #9

by Iain Hollingshead

New in the best-selling series of Unpublished Letters, this is a year in review made up of the wry and astute observations of the unpublished Telegraph letter writers.

In a year in which even the most seasoned commentators have struggled to keep pace with the news cycle, letter writers to The Daily Telegraph have once again provided their refreshing take on events. Readers of the Telegraph Letters Page will be fondly aware of the eclectic combination of learned wisdom, wistful nostalgia and robust good sense that characterise its correspondence.

But what of the 95% of the paper’s huge postbag that never sees the light of day? Some of the best letters inevitably arrive too late for the 24/7 news cycle, or don’t quite fit with the rest of the day’s selection. Others are just a little too whimsical, or indeed too risque, to publish in a serious newspaper. And more than a few are completely and utterly (and wonderfully) mad. Thankfully Iain Hollingshead is on-hand to give the authors of the best unpublished letters the stage they so richly deserve. Baffled, furious, defiant, mischievous, they inveigh and speculate on every subject under the sun, from the rubbish on television these days to the venality of our MPs.

With an agenda as enticing as ever the ninth book in the bestselling Unpublished Letters series will prove, once again, that the Telegraph’s readers have an astute sense of what really matters.

Genres: Humor

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 2, 2017

About the author

Iain writes feature articles for a range of publications, The Daily Telegraph in particular. Until recently, he also wrote a regular column called Loose Ends in Saturday's Guardian. He has taken part in a number of radio shows, including BBC Radio 4's Today programme and You and Yours.

His father is a GP and his mother is a surgeon. He has one elder brother. He went to Eton from 1993-98. Iain graduated from Cambridge University in 2003 with a first class degree in History. He worked for a year in Westminster - at Vote 2004 and the private office of Michael Howard - before pursuing a full-time career as a journalist. Vote 2004 was described in the Sunday Telegraph as the "most successful political campaign of all time". Iain was runner-up in the Guardian Student Media Awards as Columnist of the Year. While at university he also founded and edited The Cambridge Slapper - a popular satirical magazine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Ho...

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this series of books at Dobbies Garden Centre a couple years ago despite reading the Telegraph regularly since I came to England nearly 20 years ago! Anyway, I couldn't put it down so when I saw that this year's copy was on Kindle, I snapped it up. This book is full of unpublished letters to the editor for 2017. The British have worked the letter to the editor into a fine art. Apparently the Telegraph gets 700 letters a day. If they only publish about 20-30 of them, that's still a lot of letters! They write about everything, from current events and sport to the quality of the advertising and the cross word puzzles! They write about family history, quirky stories and often as not, about themselves. It is a joy to read and I often found myself laughing aloud. So if you find yourself with a copy, pop the kettle on, make yourself a cuppa and enjoy!

[David Campton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second one of this series I have been given for a Christmas present over recent years and I think I had the same experience both times ie. despite nor being a Torygraph reader I initially found it funny, but reading too much of it in one go can leave you with a feeling of overindulgence in jingoism and tweedy rejection of "the world today". This was perhaps exacerbated by all the Brexit stuff, which frankly, whatever direction it is coming from just wants me to hide away in a funny book with no mention of it... There was surprisingly little on Trump however...

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and amusing little read. What I especially liked was the insight it provided to British culture, politics and humour. Some very clever and witty letters recorded within this book makes it easy to read and to pick up again after you have left it. I read it while travelling and staying in Weymouth in an apartment as it was one of the books available to read and I am happy that I did,

[Allan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another present. And as I said about the last one of this series that I read last year, I found also found this one occasionally mildly amusing. It reminded me why I do not take a daily newspaper and why I sometimes get irritated by social media..

[Colin Parfitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shouldn't be surprised that this is rather right-wing, but for every clever or insightful letter extract, there's five old man rants.

[MattMez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loads of old people and rich people that find themselves funny moaning about stuff. Couldn't be bothered to finish it, heres' an out of place apostrophe for them to write another letter about.

[Littleloz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doesn't take any amount of concentration, a good few chuckles throughout, though a bit dated now. I've now bought another few in the series.