Customer Reviews

Envelopes: A Puzzling Journey Through the Royal Mail

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Mail carriers in the UK must either really appreciate games or be far more patient than their American counterparts. Author Harriet Russell grew up in a house called Shulbrede Priory; not surprisingly, people often misspelled that name, and Harriet bemusedly noted how often her family received their mail even when it was grossly mislabeled. Harriet later moved into a flat with a less challenging address, but viewed her earlier mail experience as a challenge; she began mailing herself letters. However, for kicks she purposefully obscured her address in various ways. Initially, she simply tried to make the address difficult to read; for example, the first envelope in this book presents the address written in mirror image. When these inaugural efforts arrived unscathed at her home, she made them more challenging - veritable mysteries for the mail carriers. One of the envelopes involved a crossword puzzle, and sure enough a postal worker carefully solved the puzzle, recording the responses in red ink and neatly written block letters. Other envelopes required a dot-to-dot procedure or cracking a code before the address became apparent.

Harriet writes that, of the 130 envelopes she sent, 120 were delivered successfully. She even started sending them to relatives and friends so as to make sure that it wasn't simply the case that the postal service knew to send all odd looking envelopes to her. This conceit is a rather thin topic for a book. However, the 75 envelopes presented here are quite beautiful - nearly works of art. Harriet's artistic skills are somewhat primitive, but she clearly took care designing them. Pouring through them is entertaining, and they can be enjoyed aesthetically as well. The only quibble is that I wish that she had included some text for each envelope. Many of them are fully self-explanatory, but some narrative about others would be helpful. However, overall this whimsical book is quite pleasant and amusing.

Now & then we need to relax with a playful book. In this 2005 title from England, art student Harriet Russell shows what fun she had decorating envelopes & then mailing them TO HERSELF.

The "decorations" cleverly incorporate addresses to puzzle out - and patient employees of the Royal Mail did just that. The author calls them "heroic" for tolerating such foolishness (and fun). They doubtless enjoyed deciphering the addresses in a dot-to-dot puzzle, an eye chart, a maze - to mention a sampling. Only a handful went undelivered.

Readers will probably conclude that employees of the Royal Mail can shrug off red tape & being stiff-necked about regulations. Reviewer mcHaiku tracked a copy of Russell's "ENVELOPES" (isbn: #1400064007) via Inter Library Loan, a superb agency that supplies books to those who want "to look before they leap" - - this has been one of the more satisfactory "finds" during a Spring that has been chilly, and laid low by the quagmire of politics.

Harriet Russell's creativity brings a warmth and light-heartedness to the reading circle.

What a delightful book! I enjoyed seeing the various envelopes and miss that folks to write letters all the more! Hope to see more from Harriet Rusell.

This is a very fun book. The postal workers in England had to be quite clever to figure out some of these addresses. I doubt if many of these would ever be delivered to American addresses. Charming.