Dear Mr. Shaw

An illustrated volume of letters from around the globe (plus one from beyond the grave), written to George Bernard Shaw together with his witty and unpredictable replies. George Bernard Shaw calculated that he could have written about twenty more plays in the time expended on the quarter of a million letters and cards he sent in reply to those who wrote to him. At one stage he was receiving up to three proposals of marriage a week and included here are mutual declarations of love exchanged with Virginia Woolf and a final letter to one long-standing correspondent: "Dear Elsie, Seek younger friends; I am extinct. G.B. Shaw". He declared "I have become the father confessor of the whole world", and this compilation indicates the wide range of topics on which he was requested to advise. To one aspirant author, W.H. Davis he ensured the success of "Autobiography of a super-tramp" but to another he responded "Who would want to read your rubbish after my preface?" A great number of letters demanded attention to troubles great and small, serious and ridiculous from the plea for a new doggie (agreed) to the offer of lunch at Chequers and a knighthood (declined).