How King Charles became one of the world’s most prolific pen pals

While he was the Prince of Wales, the monarch wrote an estimated 2,400 letters a year to people across all walks of life - many of them hand-written.

To famous correspondences such as Henry James and Edith Wharton, JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis, and Catherine the Great and Voltaire, we can now add the rather surprising duo of King Charles and Melania Trump.

The former first lady of the United States revealed in her new memoir she and her husband have an ongoing correspondence with the monarch, writing: “Our friendship with the royal family continues and we exchange letters with King Charles to this day.”

One can only imagine the content of those letters between the King and the former fashion model, although perhaps thoughts on green issues are exchanged between pleasantries. Mrs Trump first met the then-Prince of Wales in New York in 2005, and it was “an absolute pleasure to reconnect with him” in 2019, she comments in her book, when she was seated next to him at a Buckingham Palace banquet during the Trumps’ state visit to the UK.

Mrs Trump adds: “We engaged in an interesting conversation about his deep-rooted commitment to environmental conservatism.”

Of course, it is to be expected that King Charles would communicate with the leaders of other nations, and Mrs Trump’s husband could yet make a return to the White House. The King sent a private letter to the former president after the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally in July.

He also wrote frequently to another first lady, Nancy Reagan. The pair met when he visited the White House in May 1981, just before his wedding to Princess Diana, and renewed the acquaintance during another US trip in 1985. They wrote from that point on until Reagan’s death in 2016.

In one letter written shortly after that second visit, the King shared that Diana “still hasn’t got over dancing with John Travolta, Neil Diamond and Clint Eastwood in one evening, not to mention the president of the United States as well!”

He was then remarkably candid about the breakdown of his marriage. In a letter to Reagan dated June 21, 1992, he described it as “a kind of Greek tragedy”, adding: “It is so awful. Very few people would believe it.”

However, Reagan and Trump are far from the only people whom this prolific letter-writer could count among his correspondences, nor does he confine himself to the usual heads of state and politicians.

In fact, one of the King’s keen pen pals is the Australian comedian and novelist Kathy Lette. “King Charles is the most witty wordsmith,” Lette tells the Telegraph. “If he were not born to wear the crown, I have no doubt he’d be literary royalty, ruling supreme as a star columnist on the Telegraph.” High praise indeed.

Lette considers herself a republican, at least as far as Australia is concerned, yet is good friends with King Charles and Queen Camilla. In 2017, she attended the latter’s 70th birthday celebrations.

Lette first met the King at an event at Australia House in the mid-1990s, where she made him laugh by quipping that she too was royalty of a kind because she could trace her lineage back to the first fleet of criminals who landed in Oz. She has praised the King’s “disarming charm”, as well his being “way ahead of his time on all those environmental issues. I can connect with him on that, big time”.

Actress and comedian Miriam Margolyes revealed her correspondence with the King began when he wrote to her about her 1998 audiobook recording of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, and they have since exchanged numerous notes. Like Lette, she is a great admirer of King Charles, commenting that “he does a huge amount people don’t know about”. Margolyes always hand-writes her letters to the King and never uses a computer, she said, “because I don’t want him to feel that somebody else could see what I write and what he writes”.

It seems very likely the King similarly prefers the pen to the keyboard. He recently described Dinah Johnson, founder of the Hand-written Letter Appreciation Society, as “inspirational”, and it’s been estimated while he was the Prince of Wales, he wrote about 2400 letters a year, or six and a half letters every day - many to members of the public, and many of them hand-written.

That speaks to his estimable sense of duty, and also supports Queen Camilla’s view he is something of a workaholic. Royal expert Richard Kay reports the King is often to be found in his study late at night, long after his wife and staff have retired to bed, still working on his correspondence. He doesn’t seem to rely on a secretary, instead choosing to put pen to paper himself.

A royal source said letters from the public often catch the King’s eye because of the issues they raise, and that the letter-writer will then receive a personal letter from him. The source added: “It is all about listening. [The King] says we only learn when we listen, and when members of the public write to him, that is a form of active listening.”

The King is also renowned for his compassionate letters at difficult times. Actor Richard E Grant struck up a friendship with King Charles when he became an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust, and was subsequently invited for a weekend at Sandringham, and later to King Charles and Queen Camilla’s wedding. In his book Pocketful of Happiness, Grant writes that when his wife Joan was diagnosed with lung cancer, the King sent her “a two-page, hand-written letter, full of love, compassion, empathy and encouragement”.

The King gained a new pen pal in 2020 when he wrote a get-well letter to Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald after she tested positive for Covid. “I thought that was tremendously kind and I responded,” said McDonald. “He had Covid as well. This virus makes unlikely allies of us all.” She later conveyed her sympathies, in letter form, following the death of Prince Philip.

Some of King Charles’s other numerous pen pals include the 104-year-old Ena Mitchell in High Wycombe, whose husband Bill was killed in Belgium in 1944. She joined the War Widows’ Association, and the King became its patron. Mitchell and King Charles exchanged letters over the years and, she said, she has sent him “a couple of architecture books I thought might interest him”.

The King’s dedication to letter-writing began early. Last year, a very endearing note from a 6-year-old Prince Charles to the Queen Mother was discovered in a loft and put up for auction. Dated March 15, 1955 and written in precise, looping letters on Buckingham Palace notepaper, it reads: “Dear Granny, I am sorry that you are ill. I hope you will be better soon. Lots of love from Charles.” The note also includes colourful drawings and kisses.

Alas, the handwriting hasn’t stayed that neat. The King’s letters to various government ministers and politicians were nicknamed the “black spider” memos because of his spiralling, semi-legible scrawl in black ink. Graphologist Elaine Quigley said his distinctive longhand suggests he is a sensitive man, single-minded, and a passionate communicator. We know King Charles prefers a fountain pen because he used his own when signing his accession documents: a Montblanc 146 Sterling Pinstripe Solitaire.

Letters seem to be a medium in which he can unburden himself. He recently wrote candidly to friends about his cancer treatment, with one person sharing that the letters suggested his determination not to let the disease slow him down. It was also via a letter (albeit one shared on the royal family’s website and social media) on Sandringham House-headed stationery that the King thanked the public for their good wishes.

In 2020, King Charles and Queen Camilla wrote a letter addressed to “Everyone at Royal Mail” and left it on a bench outside their front door at Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate, for collection by their local postman, Neil Martin. In the heartfelt note, they said the Royal Mail’s role had never been more important than during the pandemic, as many people took the time to “write a letter, or a card, to those from whom they are separated. Receiving such a personal message at this difficult and anxious time can mean an enormous amount”.

That appreciation for letter-writing might well have been instilled by the late Queen Elizabeth II. She kept up a correspondence with her American pen pal, Adele Hankey, for 70 years. Hankey first contacted the queen upon her coronation, and the pair shared a birthday, April 21.

It’s a fine tradition to uphold, particularly as technology encroaches on our means of communication. After all, what could be better than receiving a thoughtful, hand-written letter - especially one penned by a royal hand?

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.