Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Welcome to the Life of Letters podcast.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: I'm your host, Laura Edrilyn.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: And I'm producer Heidi Cullip. And it's lovely to have you with us again for series four.
So series four is all about rediscovery, whether that's a forgotten text or a forgotten brand or a forgotten art form. As always, it's a really wide ranging series where we speak to lots of wonderful people within the world of calligraphy and letters.
Laura, why don't you tell us a little bit about it?
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Yeah, very exciting. It's a lovely series coming up. So we've got David Grimes, who a lot of people will know as Mads Grimes on Instagram, and he dives into his keen interest as well around penmanship history. So it's a fascinating area. But also his main script, which is in Gross's script. So I pick his brains about what is in Gross's script. Why do we get so confused with all the different scripts? And he tells me basically all the things we need to know. So that's a brilliant episode. Kaweco. I chat to their CEO Michael, who tells the story of the pen brand which kind of got lost and he's brought it back. So again, really pulling through that theme of rediscovery and the fascinating story about where these pens have come from, but also where they're going next, which is very exciting. And Nina Tran, another amazing calligrapher, very well known on Instagram, who dives into. Into Spencerian with me and lots of other things. Actually, our conversation goes off on lots of beautiful different paths.
Ellie Hayward. So a letter on Instagram tells me about the. The group of letters which I've always been quite fascinated in, which is black letters. So this is very much her skill set and she talks about her journey into these particular letters, but also lots of the more technical side of it, which is fascinating. So lots of lovely tips and tricks in there from. From Ellie. Liz McGuire is another wonderful guest and she tells me all about the lost art of letter writing. She actually runs an incredible digital archive called Flea Market Love Letters. And it's just beautiful stories from letters throughout history, giving lots of wonderful social context and dives into relationships and characters and stories that basically unfold on the page by people who've shared them with each other.
Dr. George Gazeez is a professor at Durham University and he specializes in ancient Greece and extinct scripts, which has just given me a wonderful opportunity to ask lots of questions around the evolution of letters and writing systems. And it is a fascinating, quite possibly my favorite of all the series conversation.
Yeah, it totally ticked all my curiosity boxes. So, a really, really lovely set of guests.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Oh wow. And obviously this will be our final series of 2025, which is just incredible. For those of you who are eagle eyed or eagle eared, we will have noticed we only have six guests this season and that's because we are busy getting ready for even more epis in 2026.
And to think that Laura and I kicked this off back in January.
It's been almost 12 months and it's just, it's blown away our expectations. We've had over 7,000 listens from across 29 countries and we're just so excited and thankful and grateful for the support. We love having you on this journey with us and wherever you're listening, if you can rate, review or comment, that really helps us reach more people around the world.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Honestly, such an incredible response. And it's lovely to know that it's not just Heidi and I who have a deep rooted obsession with letters. And there's lots of people around the world who can share that love with us, whether they are the guests on the podcast or people listening, tuning in, sharing it. And we're on Instagram as well where I send sneak peeks at some of the episodes, so do follow us there if you're not already following.
And lots more to come in 2026.
But we're also hugely grateful to Speedball Arts. They've sponsored us again for series four, so thank you to them. And thank you to all the guests who are joining us for this final series of the year. But watch this space, lots more to come next year as well.
Thanks so much for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with a fellow letter lover. Until next time, keep listening, keep creating, and keep celebrating the life of letters.
