JAMES DAYBELL is professor of Early Modern British History at Plymouth University, UK, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is author of Women Letter-Writers in Tudor England (2006); editor of Early Modern Women's Letter-Writing, 1450-170(2001), Women and Politics in Early Modern England, 1450-1700 (2004), and (with Peter Hinds) Material Readings of Early Modern Culture, 1580-1730 (2010).

List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction Materials and Tools of Letter-Writing Epistolary Writing Technologies Interpreting Materiality and Social Signs Postal Conditions Secret Letters Copying, Letter-Books and the Scribal Circulation of Letters The Afterlives of Letters Conclusion Notes Selected Bibliography Index

The first major socio-cultural study of manuscript letters and letter-writing practices in early modern England. Daybell examines a crucial period in the development of the English vernacular letter before Charles I's postal reforms in 1635, one that witnessed a significant extension of letter-writing skills throughout society.