The message “wish you were here” was often as big a lie as the picture
featuring azure seas and cloudless blue skies.
But despite the retouched photographs of drab resorts and sometimes insincere
sentiments, the picture postcard has never been more popular.
According to the latest figures from the Royal Mail, Britons are sending about
135 million postcards each year - an increase of 30 million on just five
years ago.
E-mailing and texting may have grabbed the headlines, but for many
holidaymakers the picture postcard is the only way to ram home the message:
“We’re having a wonderful time (and you aren’t).”
Patrick O’Neill, a spokesman for the Royal Mail which released the figures,
said: “These are huge levels. They have not been at these levels before.
“There are certain things about postcards that people like using. They are a
physical connection with the recipient, unlike a text or e-mail.
“It requires a certain degree of effort to write a postcard, which means you
care enough to do it.
“It is also true that people take many more holidays than they did 25 years
ago. It is about people getting across that they are somewhere special.”
The rise of the postcard parallels the growth in post generally, with the
Royal Mail delivering an average of 80 million items of mail a day, four
times as much as 50 years ago.
Mr O’Neill added: “People have this idea in their head that it’s an
old-fashioned medium but it’s not. The claim that’s often made by telecoms
companies that text or picture messaging is killing the postcard simply
isn’t true.”
Royal Mail’s figures came from a survey of 1,000 households that recorded
every item of post that they received.
Brian Lund, editor of Picture Postcard Monthly, said: “We’ve noticed a
stark increase in the number of postcards being sent over the last few
years.
“Back in the early Nineties, when the internet and mobile phones took over,
the number of people sending postcards dropped for obvious reasons - sending
a text is easier and cheaper.
“But now people are realising that a postcard is far more thoughtful than a
text message or an e-mail, and that they can be displayed for all to see in
the home.
“It’s my hope that we will see a return to the glory days of the postcard in
the Fifties, when sending one was all the fashion.”
Digitally enhanced images of seaside resorts are not the only big sellers. The
Postcard Company sells more than 6,000 different images of movie and pop
stars, as well as reproductions of classic film posters.
Simon Hunter, the company’s sales manager, said: “It depends a lot on who
happens to be in vogue, but Elvis, Monroe and Audrey Hepburn are always big
sellers. We have a range of over 400 Star Wars cards too that are
incredibly popular.
“People buy them to send to each other or keep and there’s a growing trend of
competition entrants wanting something eye-catching in the hope of being
picked. If it’s a dog food contest, for example, they will buy a card of a
particularly cute looking dog.”
The golden age of the postcard began in 1894 when the General Post Office, the
forerunner of the Royal Mail, first approved them for delivery by post.
The first cards coincided with the explosion of interest in photography and
many featured pictures of famous landmarks or scenic seaside views.
By the 1930s the black and white landscape had been overtaken in popularity by
the saucy cartoon postcard featuring a risqué cartoon and a double entendre.
Collecting postcards, known as deltiology, is also growing in popularity with
at least 60 clubs across Britain. The nation’s largest private collection is
held by Roger Peck, a pensioner from Colchester, Essex, who owns an
estimated 37,000.