The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen is this month’s Irish Times Book Club choice. Over the next four weeks, we shall explore the novel with articles by the author; her editor, a fellow writer, who watched the book evolve from a Guardian/UEA masterclass in 2012; and Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes of Mainstreet Pictures, the duo behind Downton Abbey and Broadchurch, on why they believe it is a perfect book for a screen adaptation.
Inside the Dead Letters Depot in east London, William Woolf is one of 30 letter detectives who spend their days solving mysteries. Missing postcodes, illegible handwriting, rain-smudged ink, lost address labels, torn packages, forgotten street names – they are all the culprits of missed birthdays, broken hearts, unheard confessions, pointless accusations, unpaid bills and unanswered prayers.
When William discovers letters addressed simply to ‘My Great Love’ his work takes on new meaning. Written by a woman to a soulmate she hasn’t met yet, the missives stir William in ways he didn’t know were possible. Soon he begins to wonder: could William be her great love? William must follow the clues in Winter’s letters to solve his most important mystery yet: the human heart.
Praising Cullen for a thoughtful debut which conjures up an enchanting world, Irish Times reviewer Sarah Gilmartin placed it as belonmging to a popular new trend of “up-lit” – “novels that are optimistic in outlook, community minded and typically have a courageous protagonist at their centre”, such as Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Matt Haig’s How to Stop Time, and Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce.
The author, from Portlaoise, worked in RTÉ before moving to London and writing her debut while completing the Guardian/UEA novel writing programme. She will be discusing her work with Martin Doyle, Books Editor of The Irish Times, on Friday, October 26th, at 7.30pm, in The Book Centre, John Roberts Square, Waterford, as part of the Watrerford Writers Festival, curated by Rick O’Shea. It will be available to listen to on irishtimes.com on October 30th.
