Kmflett's Blog

I’m not expecting any Valentine’s Day cards on Saturday and I’m not sending any. If I feel so motivated social media will do, although the cat prefers real twitter to the virtual one.

In the nineteenth century,as Ronald Hutton notes in Stations of the Sun, the Valentine’s Card became big business. By 1825 the London Post Office handled 200,000 more letters on 14th February than any other day of the year. By the 1840s the printed Valentine’s card had arrived. As ever the matter was divided by class. Valentine’s cards for the middle classes were often elaborate with artificial flowers. By the 1870s mass production allowed for cheaper alternatives for the working classes. In 1880 one and half million Valentine’s cards were delivered by the Post Office.

I wonder if anyone will be sending Keir Starmer a Valentine…