Three hundred unforgettable missives from classical antiquity to the present day: a letter from Cicero's about his dinner with Caesar, and another from Elvis Presley offering himself to President Nixon as an FBI agent. There are letters of love, war, family affairs, high politics, financial disaster, rural life, exploration, poverty, immigration, artistic endeavour, spirital awakeneing, reportage, health, gossip, last letters fom the condemned, and the spurned, letters written in madness, sadness and badness. Every letter in this collection reveals a startling insight into an age or a hitherto unsuspected side to a well-known personality.