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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Business
Natasha May

Letter writing is declining in Australia, but our most prolific scribes say its fate isn’t sealed

Jack
Jack Berne, a year 9 student from Sydney’s northern beaches, has been a prolific letter writer since discovering his mother’s letters. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Jack Berne was helping clear out his family’s rusting storage shed when he came across the letters his mother wrote when she was his age. “My mum’s old letters were to her friends. That was kind of a shock to me that’s how they communicated – she’d drop it off in a letterbox.”

He found the colourful letters, with drawings and bubble writing, had a much more personal touch than the texts he sent friends.

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