LAURA STANLEY, 22

Dear all the therapists,

In lockdown, I have not learnt a new skill but I have watched too many flms and shows starring Lesley Manville. Days before it all changed I saw her bewitch the stage.

You asked me what makes me go on living. I miss live theatre. I miss running to London when I feel like I’m burning down to my last candle wick and I miss

sitting in the theatre’s breathless dark and I miss how the words place me under a glass jar and I miss the rush of fresh

air afer the fnal scene and I miss stepping outside into the foyer light, relighting into a fame from a spark.

– Laura Stanley

Te writer Maya Angelou famously said: ‘If you’re not angry, you’re either a stone, or too sick to be angry.’ She encouraged people to ‘use that anger, yes. You write it. You paint it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.’ Our next letter is in the spirit of Maya Angelou’s words and contains information that some might fnd distressing.