Joining Tom Jackson – in the golden, faraway days before lockdown – to discuss the postcards from their pasts are comedian and writer CHRIS NEILL (Woof) and novelist STEPHANIE BUTLAND (Lost For Words, The Woman in the Photograph). We cycle from Lands End to a broken tentpole, ponder the mystery floodlights of Ealing, and Unseen Weybridge, as well as Snow White, Auntie Hastings and a poet laureate. Wish you were here?

Isola Pescatori, Lake Maggiore “Weather perfect now after thunder early in the week. This is all I seem to be able to manage – a card on holiday & one at Christmas.”
Chris’s card from his grandfather to his mother from Bournemouth, 1937.
A postcard received by Stephanie, sent to her by one time Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion.
Three cards sent by Stephanie’s father to her children. The cards track a cycle trip he took from Land’s End to John o’Groats.
Simon’s Seat, Yorkshire, 1966 “We had Mother & Austin for a short week end & it was nice to see them,  though I was running at the nose & like a fountain most of the time. Got through all paper hanks & on to Kitchen and toilet rolls!!”
Chris’s wonderful Snow White postcards – part of a long correspondence between his grandmother’s sister Dorothy and her friend Betty. Betty kept up a regular correspondence, letting her know – sometimes daily – what she had been up to. The cards represent a beautiful record of a friendship.
Princess Elizabeth on a postcard from Chris family collection – The message contains a mystery: “I’m so glad that you were able to see the floodlighting and that you enjoyed it…” What and where were the floodlighting?
A real photographic postcard from Stephanie’s family album. It shows her grandmother and two unknown women – friends? Relatives?
The secret to making sure you don’t lose your realtives in a crowded photograph: X marks the spot to show us Stephanie’s grandparents – on a church outing?
Lambeth Bridge, 1965: “ Dear Friends, I had a lovely journey and now I am here with friends who are very good to me. But I shall not come to Scotland. It is such a long and costly journey, I just cannot afford it. Please do not be angry with me.”
A musical postcard from Brussels – the Blue Majorette on the River Kwai..?