Description

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Pitman Shorthand was developed by Sir Isaac Pitman from 1837 and became the most popular shorthand system in Britain. Many travelers adopted it to send complex messages, whether to maximize available writing space or avail themselves of the secrecy it afforded. This beautifully designed book presents fifty postcards from the golden age of the postcard, each with a message written in Pitman Shorthand. The rules of Pitman have changed since these postcards were written, and Kathryn Baird’s careful transcription has unlocked these mysterious old messages, written between 1901 and 1917: stories of penfriends, sweethearts, holidays and the First World War. This nostalgic and poignant record captures a dying art.

About the Author

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Kathryn Baird learnt to write Pitman Shorthand in the 1970s and taught it in the 1980s after qualifying to teach in Further Education. She has worked as a Medical Secretary, a Lecturer in FE, and a school teacher and examiner. She became fascinated by the mysterious shorthand messages used on so many postcards and has collected and transcribed over 300 postcards with Pitman messages. Her transcription of a 1915 diary was covered by the BBC and several newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph, in 2019. She lives in Peterborough.