Penfriends

 When I was young I had penfriends in various places around the world. Diane in Australia and I have been writing for over 50 years. I also had friends I wrote to regularly in Germany, the Virgin Islands, the US and other interesting places. It was a great way to learn about other countries. It is unfortunate that as we age or move on with our lives these intimate friendships dissolve. I have just read a book by Geraldine Brooks, one of my favourite authors, called Foreign Correspondence.

Geraldine Brooks writes of her childhood penfriends, an attempt to leave the confines of what she saw as a very isolated Australian childhood. Her first such friend also lived in Australia, but she soon gathered up a variety of other letter writers from the US and Israel. After many years she decided to contact these penfriends and this book describes how these relationships evolved, how their lives had taken very divergent paths, and the new level of unanticipated relationships she developed. 

This is not a long book like her wonderful novels, it is an easy read and also a prizewinning book. Enjoy.