What a wonderful story, It's not the type of book I would usually pick up but I am more than glad I did.
The book is beautifully written and the story keeps you immersed.

Such a lovely book. I read it very quickly and loved every bit.
The story is told in an easy manner and easy to follow. A real good feel factor.

Such a fascinating premise! I love the idea of missing letters being found by someone - I love the idea of me finding missing letters. Unfortunately I found the relationship issues with William and his wife to be a bit tedious and a bit too much - I didn't realise that would be such a focus of the book. I was expecting the book to be mostly about the lost letters, but it was just too much of a depressing marriage.

Lost letters have only one hope for survival . . . Inside the Dead Letters Depot in East London, William Woolf is one of thirty letter detectives who spend their days solving mysteries: Missing postcodes, illegible handwriting, rain-smudged ink, lost address labels, torn packages, forgotten street names - they are all the culprits of missed birthdays, broken hearts, unheard confessions, pointless accusations, unpaid bills and unanswered prayers. When William discovers letters addressed simply to 'My Great Love' his work takes on new meaning. Written by a woman to a soulmate she hasn't met yet, the missives stir William in ways he didn't know were possible. Soon he begins to wonder: Could William be her great love? William must follow the clues in Winter's letters to solve his most important mystery yet: the human heart.

A sweet, sweet story. Full of wonderful writing and a thought provoking look at love and marriage, but not what I expected. William is a gentle soul and I love the idea of letter detectives - do these really exist?? I guess it's here that I was most disappointed as not enough was made of this and the potential stories that could have emerged. Still, a reminder of the time before the world was overcome with social media and the internet - when people reached out in different ways and you had to work hard at getting to know someone. Heartwarming and tender - an enjoyable read.

Meet William, disenchanted romantic in his perfect vocation. Shy, cautious and yet determined to get to the bottom of one particular letter in The Dead Letters Depot addressed to My Great Love.
This tale has meandering prose filled with sorrowful nostalgia befitting of a character so much older. I pictured William as a middle aged man rather than a young man is his thirties, but we learn of his grandpa chic and penchant for Corderoy very early on. William is lost. He is lost in the Supernatural section of the Dead Letters Depot, lost in his marriage and lost in his life path. The expectation of a novel abandoned, William finds a letter from a woman named Winter addressed to My Great Love and falls head over heels into the romanticism of a soul mate he has never met.
William and his wife Clare are growing up and growing apart. There is a lot to relate to in this book, from a friendship turned into relationship, grand ideas about how life should be, the disappointment and treadmill of reality, the distractions of and at work, and the illusion of love.
There are many exquisite phrases to make the reader stop and just take a moment. The characters grow as the story develops. Secrets, anxieties, deceit, betrayal, expectations- all things we hide from the people around us, are explored. An elegant conclusion to a wistful tale of the journey of love.
This is a story that will make the reader ask him or herself questions. I highly recommend The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. It was not what I expected given the title. I had hoped for more variety of 'Lost Letters' but the main character becomes fixated on one group of mysterious letters that leads him along a path of self discovery. I had hoped but was disappointed, I stuck with it to the end but I was always waiting for more letters to feature and sadly that was not the case.

I found the Dead Letters aspect of this title fascinating. The highs and lows of the outcomes swing between heartwarming and heartbreaking and their stories are told beautifully. The relationship between William and Clare very accurately explores the effect time can have on a marriage and how easy it is to lose your way. William being inextricably drawn to Winter's letters is indicative of the power of the written word and how much of ourselves we can reveal in it. An unusual read, but rewarding.

This premise for this book was intriguing and a clever idea. Although slow-paced and maybe a tad too long, it is beautifully written and is an excellent debut.

I really enjoyed this book as it did make me pause and think about the pages I had just read and reflect a bit. Its not a quick read but a lovely slow read which you want to absorb and really get into.

The premise of this book fascinated me. A postal department whose job it is to find it where a letter or parcel should be, with the limited resources of the 1980s. Love letters, presents and a lot of oddities go through this team, at the Dead Letters Depot, and they all feel compelled to get it to the right place. But the problem is the premise is rather secondary to a domestic drama of William Woolf and his wife Claire. Their marriage is falling apart, and William finds himself immersing himself in these lost letters until one in particular catches his attention. Addressed to 'My Great Love', the letters are written to an as yet unknown soul mate. William begins to wonder as more letters appear if he could be the writers great love and so with limited clues he sets out to find her.

This is really well written but it's a book of two halves. The detection side which is great, really interesting. But then there is William and Claire's story which is just OK. Had it been a series of stories about how William finds the owners of the letters this would have been so much better. As it is that story ends up secondary when really it needed to be the other way round. And I really did not like the end. Implicit is fine, the ending of this just felt rushed, a bit of an after thought. But despite these criticisms I do see real promise here, it hasn't put me off trying another novel from her in the future.

The story of William and Clare’s marriage andof how they seem to be drifting apart. William works in a lost letter department with a few other “detectives” and it’s their job to try and find where to send these lost letters and parcels to. One day he comes across a letter from a lady looking for her “great love” but William gets a bit carried away by these missives this lady keeps posting. William is dull and Clare is selfish, so it’s hard to root for either of them. I liked this book very much at the start, but less and less the more I read. The ending? Well that was a bit rushed and I was expecting a bit more to be honest. I loved the department where William worked and hope there really is such a job - how satisfying would that be!

Loved this book after a slow start! Very pleased that i did persevere as I did get into it and really enjoyed the relationship between Clare and William. In some ways, I wish the book had been longer and had gone into more detail of how they both retrieved their relationship. A really good, satisfying read in the end!

Really loved this book at the start, but I lost interest half way through and felt the ending was very rushed and predictable. Really wanted to like it as I loved the idea of it but I became bored

The Lost Letters of William Woolf is a delightful novel. Part fairy tale, part love story it is the story of a young man working in a post offices lost letters department. Intriguing and romantic this is an unusual novel which will touch the reader.

Truly heart warming. I was swept away with the idea of a lost mail depot and the main character wanting to trace the recipient to whom the mail belonged. Whilst doing that, he realizes that
something is missing from his own life
Will it be too late, when he eventually discovers that what he thought he’d lost he had all along?
I couldn’t read this book fast enough. It’s just enchanting.

Loved this...what could be more intriguing than a department full of letters that have never reached their destinations...and someone who is trying to get them to where they should be. A clever, quirky idea and an original story. Highly recommended

I admit to loving the premise of this book when I first heard about it. A Dead Letter Depot where researchers reunite lost letters with senders and recipients. ‘The Lost Letters of William Woolf’ by Helen Cullen left me wishing for more. It promised to be a novel about letters and mystery and turned into one focussed on a struggling marriage, which was not what I expected.
William’s marriage to Clare has gone stale and to avoid confronting what must change, he becomes obsessed by his work at the Dead Letter Depot and in particular the letters from someone called Winter addressed to ‘My Great Love’. In his vulnerable state, William begins to imagine that he may be that person and sets out to find her. Interspersed with this task we see William correctly fulfil his role, taking a lost fossil to the correct museum for example.
I switched between liking the character of William with being frustrated at his unrealistic romanticism, and could understand Clare’s frustrations. Ditto, she seemed impatient and too inclined to throw stones in a glasshouse. Clearly they were not communicating, ironic in a book about writing letters, and neither completely held my sympathy.
So what kept me reading? The lost letters, the mystery of Winter’s identity and to whom she was writing. And there lies one disappointment: the solution to Winter’s was such an anti-climax I had to flick back through the book to find an earlier reference in order to appreciate the revelation. I had two other disappointments. As much as I loved the concept of the Dead Letter Depot, a small voice in my head kept saying: it isn’t real, it wouldn’t get funding, it should be one man at a desk not a department with enough staff or budget for a Fancy Dress Fundraiser, and shouldn’t the lost letters be old not recently posted. I was also unclear of the timeline of the story. William and Clare feel like a 21st century couple living in the 1980s, pre-mobiles, pre-tablets. Something jarred and it would not go away.
This novel could have been so much more if there was less about the fragile relationship between William and Clare and more about the Dead Letter Depot, William’s fellow workers and the cases they worked on. But it is nicely written and if you are looking for an easy-to-read romance for your holiday, you will probably love it.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

I loved this book, drawn to it by the cover and the idea of letter writing I hoped it would give me that warm cosy feeling whilst reading it - I am happy to say it did.

Working in the Lost Letter Department William has a fantastic job of reuniting letter and parcels with their intended recipient and that in itself is an adventure to me!

The love story that unveils is fabulous and I will be rereading this book very soon - I adored it!

The idea of a team of people working to return lost letters and parcels to their destinations is so charming, and William is a fantastic letter investigator. His relationship with wife, Clare, power dressing, hard hitting lawyer, is layered up for the reader with care and love, from their awkward and romantic beginnings to the rocky place we find them in. The sense of magic and exploration, both of their current relationship and the people they want to be, leaps off the page and we wait with baited breath to see if the mysterious Winter will be William's cure or an intangible and frustrating curse. A wonderful book for anyone who loves the power of the written word.

Do you think they still have a lost letters department at the Royal Mail? I would like to think they do, and I think it would be a job that I, myself would love, just like William Woolf.

Woolf reminded me of an academic such was the way in which Cullen described his appearance, in some ways he seemed older than he actually was. A failed writer, he appeared to be a man who had slightly lost his way, become stuck in a rut, afraid to take a chance and move on.

He was a bit like his marriage, stale, lost in the minutiae of everyday life, two people drifting apart, not sure how or if they can bring it all back together.

Claire was William’s complete opposite, a high flying lawyer, resentful of William’s lack of ambition and their small flat. I did wonder if William or Claire or even both of them would frustrate me and that I would become inpatient, willing them to sort themselves out. Instead Cullen crafted a narrative that was both poignant and emotive. Both had their dilemmas, to stay or to go and it was only in the retelling of their separate journeys that you slowly began to understand them. It was William’s story that really stood out for me, his discovery of a series of love letters from the mysterious Winter, allowed me to really see who William was, as he dug deep within himself, questioning his life and his love for Claire.

I particularly loved the way in which Cullen interspersed the myriad of lost letters within the story, making this novel more than just about a marriage. It was also the perfect way in which to see the real William and his sensitivity towards others, and the importance he put on ensuring the mail reached the intended persons.

It was a novel that had a huge heart, and one in which I desperately wanted a happy outcome for William and Claire. Cullen cleverly kept me guessing, with a will they or won’t they theme throughout and I will admit to being just a little inpatient, furiously turning the pages to discover the outcome.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and would love to see it adapted for TV, as it would make a brilliant drama series.

I cannot wait for what Cullen will write next and hope she does not leave it too long before novel number 2 appears.