Handle with care: the international community sending parcels of pure joy through the mail

Anna Ryan-Punch was 15 when she received her first friendship book. It was the start of a lifelong hobby

Australian Anna Ryan-Punch was 15 when she received her first friendship book – a handmade and decorated pocket-sized booklet full of names and addresses of people looking for pen pals. Recipients were invited to add their details to the list, send a letter to other signatories and then pass the booklet on to someone new.

“They were included in letters as a side thing,” Ryan-Punch, now 44, says. When it was full of potential pen pals, the friendship book would, hopefully, be returned to the person who made it. “I didn’t have anyone to send them on to, but I wrote to people out of them and that kind of grew into a circle.”