Yes, Tom Hiddleston's voice is honeyed and dreamy. I am not, however, persuaded even by his magnificent reading of the letter that the author is anything other than a very literate yet dangerous person. Explaining away a "black monster" of jealousy by reminding the person regarding whom one is jealous that you wouldn't be jealous if you didn't love her is nothing short of frightening. It is what domestic abusers always say when they hurt or kill their (former) wives or (former) girlfriends. To the recipient of this letter: Run, my dear, and don't even THINK about marrying this man!
Maybe. This was a letter from a 53 year old man, well established in careers of naturalism and writing, writing to a 29 year old woman. He speaks of what he has learned of himself in his life and his failing first marriage (he was divorced the following year). Lee did marry George in 1979 and remained with him until his death in 1995.
Nicely said. I am a female who gets tired of other females always jumping to the abuse card. Sometimes people are just recognizing who they are and are being honest about themselves. I think this is a sweet letter in one that is very touching
i still write letters many of which are like this one that i never sent out. i'm 16 and unlike most teenagers i love poetry. out of all of it i find it more better to send letters than text, a letter has a lot more meaning to me than a text. do you think so as well ?
I wasn't expecting this to make me cry. I write letters to my wife. She is the most magnificent, loving, tempestuous, adventurous, intelligent, fascinating, painfully beautiful, and ever so wonderfully tangible creature I could have ever hoped to have come across. She's perfectly imperfect. Flawlessly flawed. She's promised to forever be mine, and I will spend the rest of my foolish, clumsy, bumbling existence striving to make her happy.
This letter was going so so well.... A little overeager but still could be cute and then it took such a turn for the worse at the "you'll be in my shadow and exist exclusively as my wife" and "I am a jealous monster who will hurt people" 😬
Gerald and Lee have a pretty awesome story. Gerald was a writer and gave a lecture at Duke where Lee was a student, which is how they met. They stayed married until he died, and Lee is still alive (73). He was about 30 years older than her when they married
An Authorized Biography by Douglas Botting -1999)： My darling McGeorge, You said that things seemed clearer when they were written down. Well, here with a very boring letter in which I will try and put everything down so that you may read and re-read it in horror at your folly in getting involved with me. Deep breath. To begin with I love you with a depth and passion that I have felt for no one else in this life and if it astonishes you it astonishes me as well. Not, I hasten to say, because you are not worth loving. Far from it. It’s just that, first of all, I swore I would not get involved with another woman. Secondly, I have never had such a feeling before and it is almost frightening. Thirdly, I would never have thought it possible that another human being could occupy my waking (and sleeping) thoughts to the exclusion of almost everything else. Fourthly, I never thought that - even if one was in love - one could get so completely besotted with another person, so that a minute away from them felt like a thousand years. Fifthly, I never hoped, aspired, dreamed that one could find everything one wanted in one person. I was not such an idiot as to believe this was possible. Yet in you I have found everything I want: you are beautiful, gay, giving, gentle, idiotically and deliciously feminine, sexy, wonderfully intelligent and wonderfully silly as well. I want nothing else in this life than to be with you, to listen and watch you (your beautiful voice, your beauty), to argue with you, to laugh with you, to show you things and share things with you, to explore your magnificent mind, to explore your wonderful body, to help you, protect you, serve you, and bash you on the head when I think you are wrong … Not to put too fine a point on it I consider that I am the only man outside mythology to have found the crock of gold at the rainbow’s end.
But - having said all that - let us consider things in detail. Don’t let this become public but … well, I have one or two faults. Minor ones, I hasten to say. For example, I am inclined to be overbearing. I do it for the best possible motives (all tyrants say that) but I do tend (without thinking) to tread people underfoot. You must tell me when I am doing it to you, my sweet, because it can be a very bad thing in a marriage. Right. Second blemish. This, actually, is not so much a blemish of character as a blemish of circumstance. Darling I want you to be you in your own right and I will do everything I can to help you in this. But you must take into consideration that I am also me in my own right and that I have a headstart on you … What I am trying to say is that you must not feel offended if you are sometimes treated simply as my wife. Always remember that what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts. But I am an established ‘creature’ in the world, and so - on occasions - you will have to live in my shadow. Nothing gives me less pleasure than this but it is a fact of life that has to be faced. Third (and very important and nasty) blemish: jealousy. I don’t think you know what jealousy is (thank God) in the real sense of the word. I know that you have felt jealousy over Lincoln’s wife and child, but this is what I call normal jealousy, and this - to my regret - is not what I’ve got. What I have got is a black monster that can pervert my good sense, my good humour and any goodness that I have in my make-up. It is really a Jekyll and Hyde situation … my Hyde is stronger than my good sense and defeats me, hard though I try. As I told you, I have always known that this lurks within me, but I could control it, and my monster slumbered and nothing happened to awake it. Then I met you and I felt my monster stir and become half awake when you told me of Lincoln and others you have known, and with your letter my monster came out of its lair, black, irrational, bigoted, stupid, evil, malevolent. You will never know how terribly corrosive jealousy is; it is a physical pain as though you had swallowed acid or red hot coals. It is the most terrible of feelings. But you can’t help it - at least I can’t, and God knows I’ve tried. I don’t want any ex-boyfriends sitting in church when I marry you. On our wedding day I want nothing but happiness, both for you and me, and I know I won’t be happy if there is a church full of your ex-conquests. When I marry you I will have no past, only a future: I don’t want to drag my past into our future and I don’t want you to do it, either. Remember I am jealous of you because I love you. You are never jealous of something you don’t care about. O.K. enough about jealousy. Now let me tell you something I have seen a thousand sunsets and sunrises, on land where it floods forest and mountains with honey coloured light, at sea where it rises and sets like a blood orange in a multicoloured nest of cloud, slipping in and out of the vast ocean. I have seen a thousand moons: harvest moons like gold coins, winter moons as white as ice chips, new moons like baby swans’ feathers. I have seen seas as smooth as if painted, coloured like shot silk or blue as a kingfisher or transparent as glass or black and crumpled with foam, moving ponderously and murderously. I have felt winds straight from the South Pole, bleak and wailing like a lost child; winds as tender and warm as a lover’s breath; winds that carried the astringent smell of salt and the death of seaweeds; winds that carried the moist rich smell of a forest floor, the smell of a million flowers. Fierce winds that churned and moved the sea like yeast, or winds that made the waters lap at the shore like a kitten. I have known silence: the cold, earthy silence at the bottom of a newly dug well; the implacable stony silence of a deep cave; the hot, drugged midday silence when everything is hypnotised and stilled into silence by the eye of the sun; the silence when great music ends. I have heard summer cicadas cry so that the sound seems stitched into your bones. I have heard tree frogs in an orchestration as complicated as Bach singing in a forest lit by a million emerald fireflies. I have heard the Keas calling over grey glaciers that groaned to themselves like old people as they inched their way to the sea. I have heard the hoarse street vendor cries of the mating Fur seals as they sang to their sleek golden wives, the crisp staccato admonishment of the Rattlesnake, the cobweb squeak of the Bat and the belling roar of the Red deer knee-deep in purple heather. I have heard Wolves baying at a winter’s moon, Red howlers making the forest vibrate with their roaring cries. I have heard the squeak, purr and grunt of a hundred multi-coloured reef fishes. I have seen hummingbirds flashing like opals round a tree of scarlet blooms, humming like a top. I have seen flying fish, skittering like quicksilver across the blue waves, drawing silver lines on the surface with their tails. I have seen Spoonbills flying home to roost like a scarlet banner across the sky. I have seen Whales, black as tar, cushioned on a cornflower blue sea, creating a Versailles of fountain with their breath. I have watched butterflies emerge and sit, trembling, while the sun irons their wings smooth. I have watched Tigers, like flames, mating in the long grass. I have been dive-bombed by an angry Raven, black and glossy as the Devil’s hoof. I have lain in water warm as milk, soft as silk, while around me played a host of Dolphins. I have met a thousand animals and seen a thousand wonderful things … but - All this I did without you. This was my loss. All this I want to do with you. This will be my gain. All this I would gladly have forgone for the sake of one minute of your company, for your laugh, your voice, your eyes, hair, lips, body, and above all for your sweet, ever surprising mind which is an enchanting quarry in which it is my privilege to delve. Letter to his fiancée Lee, (31 July 1978), published in Gerald Durrell: An Authorized Biography by Douglas Botting (1999)
I love Durrell! Now, when Tom H. is reading him ..... there's a different light shining through the words and images they create... thank you, master Tom! ❤
whatever woman is blessed enough to end up with him....Jesus, can he read the hell out of poetry (I know it's a letter but very poetic)....I love the way he says 'everything'
I don't understand how you can judge someone only by his voice.... don't get me wrong, I quite like him aswell but he could be a total asshole behind the voice...yet you think he is some kind of god, ...because of his voice? Women rly need to look further than the outside...men aswell though...
Oh sweet Jesus.. Listening to him reading that letter was so wonderful.. I swear to God he's sweeter than chocolate.. I can listen to his voice all day and night long.. I am charmed.. and obviously doomed but so beautifully.. damnit
No, but he is the who reads it with such a delight, I enjoy listening to his voice.. And by the way he doesn't need to write it, either way he stays one extraordinary and different person in a good way :)
I subscribed to the 'Calm' app and I often fall asleep with him reading Winnie The Pooh to me. I never get to the end of the story because I'm asleep within 10 minutes. He has such a soothing voice....
@@StarboyXL9 Maybe, just maybe, women reject you because you blame the rejection on perceived lack of wealth, looks and fitness instead of your actual shortcomings and flaws, likely flaws of character, seeing as you unironically describe the world around you as "matriarchy" ...which is laughable.
@@BoarhideGaming Guys who start with this warped mindset are known as incels. In their subculture, they can become quite dangerous when they become deeply obsessional.
@@janebrown7231 Yeah, I know about incels and MGTOWs and the whole shebang. Scary mindset. There's a good reason militaries and police forces around the world have started teaching their cadets about these groups as potentially dangerous groups.
Alessandra Bertoldi Hey winter is the best! Well..........you know When you wake up, it's warm in the bed you look outside the window, you see snow, and boats in the fjord. you see the snowy mountans across the fjord. And you go make a cup of coco sit by the window and listen to this. Now that has to be one of the most fantastical things in life.........ok that guy is magical tho.
Hi everyone! Not only does he have an exquisite voice with great tonality, he is an exquisite public speaker with great delivery. He matches his body movements and expressions with the reading material. In otherwords, one very consumate Professional ! Hail Tom !
We are here. Just find a man who admires Hiddleston as an actor and a gentleman; he may not be Hiddleston, but he might be decent and loving and romantic. And in this world where life and happiness are so short, grab for what and for whom you can get. Love and Romance are the only things that make life worth living.
Double E I relate more with you then all these fangirls. Though I'm a girl. It's Tom's reflection of an ideology or truth and unashamed vulnerability. Something a picture of relationship that we wish to see more of in this life.
Glorious in strengh and weakness, this means love ! As a man, i fully agree with the comment saying "don't settle for less than this", stand up for yourselves, ladies !
Stumbled across this by accident and now CANNOT stop watching/listening to it. My heart soars every time I hear it! Is it just me who pretends for those twelve minutes that Tom's written that letter himself and he's reading it just for me? *swoons* If only!! xx
Goodness. Im so glad no one ever wrote me a letter like that. Im such an un romantic that that would end the relationship. I once got a card on valentines day and never even opened it. I found it years later and it was from a sweet young man (we were 16/17 with whom I was friends....or so I thought. Poor chap must have been hurt.
That was truly beautiful.I've read Gerald Durrell's work and enjoyed it tremendously,but this love letter is,in my opinion,the best thing he ever wrote,and Tom really brought it to life.
I've read all of Gerald Durrell's work, and have all of his books too...and HAD NO IDEA about this letter...I even thought it was a made up letter it was so perfect, until I came across your comment and went BACK to the intro of the video...baffled and delighted...I even closed my eyes while listening to visualize such richness in vocabulary. So THANK YOU for pointing it out...I shall cherish this video and look for the letter online, printed and put it inside one of his books. Thank you again.
Spent a significant part of my adolescence tracking down his books in Edinburgh's second-hand bookshops. Now they still sit on a bookshelf in pride of place, cheerfully disintegrating. (The old Penguin editions are not the most durable of objects.) For anyone reading: SEEK OUT HIS BOOKS. God they're good - I laughed so hard it hurt at points, and the joy in them is irreplaceable.
I listened to this while I did my work...I don't know why but I was not distracted at all. His voice was so soothing that it was like music. The only time I got distracted was when I looked up and just stared at him 'cause he's pretty to look at 😂
This is the ONLY actor that does things like this. No one else comes even close. Please tell me this man has some God damn flaws. Otherwise, the fact that I will never marry or even meet him will kill me. People shouldn't be allowed to be this fucking fantastic.
Ah at a guess, maybe some cynicism, or geekiness, or the anger and impatience that quick witted people sometimes have. Having to be careful of his look for his work, which can be seen as vanity. Professional and loving his work, which can mean not available day to day, with variations in moods because of the different characters played, can be felt as self centered. Being so gifted and talented that everyone follows them and they have to be very strong willed to not fall into temptation. Being difficult to live with because we could feel that we can never be good enough and people put the people next to him in the shadows, he has to be mindful enough to put himself in the shadows, very hard to do and not instinctive, and he loves the spotlight or he wouldn't work as he does... The people loving him would have to be very sure of themselves, being that talented can attract vultures, which can seriously affect the mental health. Feeling better about it?
i mean its not even overrated that just amazing cause people admire truly flawless people,flaws indeed are sometimes attractive but this man hes just something i cant get over with
@@jenwho1212 this is true and i also understand one thing that people with flaws wont be appreciated much because he is so flawless but one thing is ive seen so many actors and ive seen chaotic and ones with flaws but this human is just genuinely this nice and sane,i dont really think he tries to be that hes absolutely real or else he would break out,im sure he has hardships as well, but im also sure hes a genuine peace and i mean peace so yeah that makes him so different and you know the real world has so much cruelty and chaos going on so people just fall into his peaceful character,im sure he feels bad that he cannot be there for the lot,but he tries. and he loves acting as his proffesion,he isnt for spotlight because he absolutely never complained when his life wasnt this higlighted as it is now. well thats kinda all, we humans want peace after all,its normal for people to be flawed and to be flawless,not everything is bad not everything is good so yeah,maybe his character has a ratio of more sanity in it
The writer sounds like he is in love with himself and with the act of writing, not with the person to whom the letter was written. Pretty words, beautiful reader, alarming red flags in the meaning.
If you saw the series about the Durrells in Corfu Gerald Durrell was the youngest son who was an amazing animal lover. It was a lovely series written by Gerald about his English family living in Corfu for 4 years, very financially strapped, and how they managed to thrive in a strange country. It is available on PBS Passport and I cannot recommend it highly enough, you will understand Gerald much better. He was about 30 years older than his wife.
The definition of "self projecting" is assuming your interpretation of "events" in correct, in this case the love affair and marriage of these two can only be truely seen and understood through your experience which of course cannot be floored, has no rickles, bias or imperfection. His command of the English language, life experiences and personal experieces have made him who he is.
If you truly love her, you wont let her sit there in your shadow, each of us has his own shadows and demons fighting and discovering through life, leaving her in your shadow means that she should deal with 2 shadows yours and hers, which is more than one person can handle. He could of said, I want you under my wing, instead in my shadow, which reflect security and safety, but that was away from what he wants. He wants all lights to be focused on him on stage while she stays in the backstage in the dark without any role to play in his scene of life. Love brings both to light, you both pull each other towards it, without surrendering to the darkness of shadows. Acknowledging the other, respect and appreciate him/her. What he said was not love, but a narcissism/ submissive relationship.
The last part of the letter was brilliant. Also, Tom Hiddleston's voice is a generous gift to the world. I could hear him speak all day long. I sat with my eyes closed, just listening to him and that warmed my heart in a strange kind of way. I love him and his accent and everything he does.
Some eye-opening comments revealing the author and the setting, thank you! I watched first, the read some comments- and went from happy to sad, both by way of tears. It reads as the sweetest thing a person could say to another, if like me you don't know, or as i found after the comments, a proposal full of hinted trial and tribulation. Ain't Love grand!
Wow! I love it when people use vocabulary the way it's meant to be used. Never stop increasing your vocabulary. Learn a word a day. Read to yourself, write to others and be read to. 🧡🧡
It's nice to have someone care about you that much, and be that self-aware, but I can only hope she knew enough of him before to be able to calculate how big of a problem the "treat you as my wife" and the "I can't do anything about this raging jealousy" might become. People do have pasts, they don't disappear. There's potential there, but I really hope they talked this though, esp since the letter hints (like some comments) at a huge power imbalance. Tom can read to me anytime, btw :)
Love Tom ❤️ Feel for Jacquie (1st wife) having to hear the spiel he wrote to this woman (whilst they were still married), especially when she'd given up so much of her life to "live in his shadow"
This is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard from a man in my life. Why can't all men be like Tommy? He's my ideal. And I will always love Tom Hiddleston not only for his beautiful body, or voice, or mind, but above all for his beautiful soul.
To feel so torn! Tom Hiddleston is precious. And I love that he reads. And I love how he cares about love (and feminism). Now this letter though, is giving me a hard time. Though I suppose it's probably very fitting for it's time? I love all the beautiful descriptions of bautiful things, but they're a little too long winded from today's perspective and for that specific letter. Other things we learn about the person who writes: - It's OK to have dark sides and even OK-ish to be at loss how to handle it, but today's perspective is, that you should have professional help rather than dumpig it on your partner in a "deal with it way". Even if we have "deal breaker" qualities or circumstances at hand, how rude (today) to demand acceptance rather than asking if the other person can live with these sides? Being accountable and showing how we intend to manage our own beast and what types of support we'd like to have (but have no right to demand). - It's OK to be sensual and overflow with emotion, adoration and even lust. What I think though of a letter that is supposed to be a love letter to me, but spends the most time on them, how they feel, what they want .... . From today's perspective, I would hope the same love letter would speak about the sender and their viewpoint, but also ask more questions, ask for the recepients hopes and wants, their wellbeing. Panting a picture alone and of another person and our relationship, rather than striving to explore both together, is by far more telling, by far more loving. - I am plainly, and very personally, discomforted by the imbalance of words on outer beauty versus inner qualities when it comes to her. While we get lots of inner "horrors" about him and then looooots of wordly beauty from him. He says he is not good for her, and he is certainly right. A powerful man, jealous to the point of disregulation, demanding external obedience in exchange for compensations "off the clock" and in way that will not give her any power outside of what he's willing to give or not give behind closed doors. Bragging about his observations and speakig of gladly givig away, what can never be taken from him and would make little difference if never experienced - unless it's with her. A man who is very right about this being bad for her, yet speaking very little about what he will do make up for it (as the purposals are fairly empty). A man like this, in a world where women frequently die and suffer of the men closest to them, while being expected to be accomodating and understanding for "boys will be boys" and men in love losing not just reason, but control. It's a bittersweet video experience. A good revisit of what works and what not, what I've learnt, what I hop to see and not see in future loveletters. And it helps that it is read by a man I care for. As that calms the ringing alarm bells in my body enough to give thought to why I know love, and know how it can be consuming and captivating and intense and beautiful as all the pittoresque nature descriptions, and yet ...... this letter is not about love. It's on the many things conflated with it. It's a story of how far we've come in telling love and human relationships (amongst each other and within) apart. So we could bring them together again, in better ways, and with safe forms of embracing all shadows.
Well, she married him the following year (1979), co-authored books with him, wrote books of her own about their shared experiences and work, and remained with him until his death in 1995
Tom Hiddleton! He's still my #1 pick to read poetry, letters,...even the darn, boring phone book. A truly soothing, hypnotic, sensual voice. Perfect cadence, right pauses, beautiful inflection. As a poetess, it would be a dream to have him read & record any of my pieces...My poetic self is loko for Loki! Sending this dream out there, into a welcoming/listening universe! :-)
Who knew that Gerald wrote so poetically. Amazing that his writing overshadowed his self proclaimed brother. Of all the Darrrell's he was the wild child who became the most acclaimed and successful of the 4 children.
I came here because, Wow, Tom Hiddleston reads a letter live! and then I saw it: Gerald Freakin' Durrell, one of my favorite authors, wrote the letter. Neat!
I've seen things... seen things you little people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium... I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments... they'll be gone.
I always cry at the end. It's so beautifully written. Oh to receive a letter like this, its amazing, I'm glad that they had a long and happy marriage. Made me laugh 😂 , and at the end made me cry again! 😢
I cried with joy and awe, sorrow and regret, but mainly with Love, both at the beauty and majesty of the words themselves, but also at the sheer compassion, insight, and talent of the performance of their reading. Thank you
If I wasn’t already happily married, hearing THIS man read THIS letter could forever set the bar impossibly high for all other men. Being that I am already happily married, it just makes me want to bonk my hubby over the head with a pillow and demand why he isn’t writing me letters like this, and reading them to me like this… sigh.
Tom's voice is as smooth as glycerine covered in sandalwood oil. This is such a masterpiece. This is the most honest proclaimation of love I've ever seen. Also, this is obnoxious of me to point out but the middle part of the letter where he talks about his faults and shortcomings sounded scaringly like something Loki would say to his lover. ('You might have to live in my shadow a lot', 'Monstrous jealousy') XD
Alas, all this, without the negative aspects of - "You'll find yourself having to stand in my shadow" and the raging jealousy, describes how I feel when looking for love, or someone to join with me down 'The path of life' so to speak.. Throughout my life, I have repeatedly been this kind of solid, genuine 'Good Guy' for every partner I have had, but alas, been screwed over, cheated on, even suffered vicious domestic abuse by one, so, I decided a while a go "Maybe relationships are not for me?". I have also felt, unfortunately, that those that I have dated disbelieved in my intent, thinking that I was not all that I said I was... Oh...far from it. The majority of this letter pretty much details the truths of my ways, my devotion towards the one I come to care about, my considerations to their needs, my effort into the relationship, my unique creativity in coming up with ways to give my 'Significant one' a smile, a laugh, and that warm 'Loved/cherished' feeling each and every day. all that and much more my heart and my mind I have to give for a woman I come to love. But... It seems, being a 'Good Guy', a 'True Gentleman' and such doesn't cut it for the majority of the women I have met on dates, as 'Looks' and materialistic beliefs hamper them from seeing all the good in me that I would truly promise them if things develop from strangers to friends to partners, that is if it successfully wen that way... All this and more good, would indeed be revealed, if given, just... a little time... For you see, I am not a selfish man. Far from it, I am one who mostly gains pleasure from seeing that my one and only, feels pleasure, is happy, is content, feels... Fulfilled... So, at 51 years old, and, I am alone... Bitter? Hell no. I do smile when I see a genuine couple of any age, being on TV/RUclips or whatever, or if I see them holding hands out in public, or interacting in those best 'Couple' ways possible, as, there is no better feeling than being, truly loved... Do I miss that feeling? Yes. Do I expect that someone will 'Enter my life', no, I don't expect it, it would be a very welcome surprise, but hey, they say 'Life is full of surprises'... So who knows? Anyway, ramble over,. I like hearing these letters read out by actors and such, gives little snippets of other peoples lives per say. And Tom (a fellow Brit) is a great actor (MAN CAN HE DANCE TOO!!! Hahah). So, to finish, all the best to all of you out there that are "All loved up", cherish every day and every moment, and keep that spark there that keeps the magic happening in your lives, whatever way that may be, and, that works for you and yours. 👌😊😊😊 😎🇬🇧
He could read the McDonald's menu and it'd be the best thing I've ever heard.
Laci Cole agreed 🙌🙌😂
I want him to read the Fitnessgram pacer test
I GENUINELY CACKLED AT THIS
lmao
Totally agreed
I feel like these are vows and im like yes tom i will marry you
Theblackdragon136 Same!! 😍😍😘
Me too... 😘😍😍 I would marry him in a heartbeat... ❤💜
Lol yeah 💖👍🥰
me too I love him so much 😂💞
Damn yes
Yes, Tom Hiddleston's voice is honeyed and dreamy. I am not, however, persuaded even by his magnificent reading of the letter that the author is anything other than a very literate yet dangerous person. Explaining away a "black monster" of jealousy by reminding the person regarding whom one is jealous that you wouldn't be jealous if you didn't love her is nothing short of frightening. It is what domestic abusers always say when they hurt or kill their (former) wives or (former) girlfriends. To the recipient of this letter: Run, my dear, and don't even THINK about marrying this man!
Maybe. This was a letter from a 53 year old man, well established in careers of naturalism and writing, writing to a 29 year old woman. He speaks of what he has learned of himself in his life and his failing first marriage (he was divorced the following year). Lee did marry George in 1979 and remained with him until his death in 1995.
Nicely said. I am a female who gets tired of other females always jumping to the abuse card. Sometimes people are just recognizing who they are and are being honest about themselves. I think this is a sweet letter in one that is very touching
This is why we need to go back to letter writing
this is more than a letter, this is a damn masterpiece!
Ayame Williams Do these readings always happen?
Ayame Williams Where did it happen? I'm not british...
Right? I miss it.
i still write letters many of which are like this one that i never sent out. i'm 16 and unlike most teenagers i love poetry. out of all of it i find it more better to send letters than text, a letter has a lot more meaning to me than a text. do you think so as well ?
I wasn't expecting this to make me cry.
I write letters to my wife. She is the most magnificent, loving, tempestuous, adventurous, intelligent, fascinating, painfully beautiful, and ever so wonderfully tangible creature I could have ever hoped to have come across. She's perfectly imperfect. Flawlessly flawed. She's promised to forever be mine, and I will spend the rest of my foolish, clumsy, bumbling existence striving to make her happy.
Wow how lucky she is, to have such one to adore her like that. You have the heart in you sir.
@lucialu2x Ma'am* ;) and she loves me just as much. So wonderful in this long life, to have a person like her.
❤
I try cards for the major holidays. Very few to None are reciprocated . Wait ✋ years ago I got lottery tickets LOL Happy St PATRICK'S DAY everyone🫑🥝🍀
You are such a sweet person.
It is a good thing that he was not my teacher in school. I would never be able to concentrate, except on the beauty of his voice.
Mathani Ralte
If he was my damn teacher, boy, I'd remember EVERYTHING from that class!
Solance Akebana I would be like these girls in Indiana Jones with "I love you" drawn on their eyelids.
So true!!!!
lol I have d same problem with me econ teacher... I must say it is very distracting
And his face
His voice is music to my ears. Damn. I could listen to him all day. *swoons*
+Stephanie Reyes same for me!
+Stephanie Reyes same here
+Stephanie Reyes And the way he says "I love you..."
Chris Evans uggggggggggg same I just freaking love this man
Do a try not to Laugh Challenge
i always love him saying "darling" 😄😄😄
Virlita D A me too
Me yoo
U r not alone 😁
Oh god YESS!!!😍😍
Its a British thing alot of us say darling in a similar fashion
This letter was going so so well.... A little overeager but still could be cute and then it took such a turn for the worse at the "you'll be in my shadow and exist exclusively as my wife" and "I am a jealous monster who will hurt people" 😬
But I do hope you watched till the end. Its just so beautifully written. The ending always makes me cry, its just so beautiful 😢 .
Human 💁
Gerald and Lee have a pretty awesome story. Gerald was a writer and gave a lecture at Duke where Lee was a student, which is how they met. They stayed married until he died, and Lee is still alive (73). He was about 30 years older than her when they married
He was about 30 years older than her when he died, too
To all the young ladies out there: don't settle for anything less than this...
I don't think my heart would ever let me anyways💀
@@ArtGuyanimates love your username xD
Really..? Lol 😂
I’m jealous because I love you.??!
Wonder how many wife beaters have said that..?!
On yer bike mate 🤣
We won't ❤️
But one should also consider their own qualities to attract such a mate, make sure a person isn't "settling for less" with you.
An Authorized Biography by Douglas Botting -1999)：
My darling McGeorge,
You said that things seemed clearer when they were written down. Well, here with a very boring letter in which I will try and put everything down so that you may read and re-read it in horror at your folly in getting involved with me. Deep breath.
To begin with I love you with a depth and passion that I have felt for no one else in this life and if it astonishes you it astonishes me as well. Not, I hasten to say, because you are not worth loving. Far from it. It’s just that, first of all, I swore I would not get involved with another woman. Secondly, I have never had such a feeling before and it is almost frightening. Thirdly, I would never have thought it possible that another human being could occupy my waking (and sleeping) thoughts to the exclusion of almost everything else. Fourthly, I never thought that - even if one was in love - one could get so completely besotted with another person, so that a minute away from them felt like a thousand years. Fifthly, I never hoped, aspired, dreamed that one could find everything one wanted in one person. I was not such an idiot as to believe this was possible. Yet in you I have found everything I want: you are beautiful, gay, giving, gentle, idiotically and deliciously feminine, sexy, wonderfully intelligent and wonderfully silly as well. I want nothing else in this life than to be with you, to listen and watch you (your beautiful voice, your beauty), to argue with you, to laugh with you, to show you things and share things with you, to explore your magnificent mind, to explore your wonderful body, to help you, protect you, serve you, and bash you on the head when I think you are wrong … Not to put too fine a point on it I consider that I am the only man outside mythology to have found the crock of gold at the rainbow’s end.
But - having said all that - let us consider things in detail. Don’t let this become public but … well, I have one or two faults. Minor ones, I hasten to say. For example, I am inclined to be overbearing. I do it for the best possible motives (all tyrants say that) but I do tend (without thinking) to tread people underfoot. You must tell me when I am doing it to you, my sweet, because it can be a very bad thing in a marriage.
Right. Second blemish. This, actually, is not so much a blemish of character as a blemish of circumstance. Darling I want you to be you in your own right and I will do everything I can to help you in this. But you must take into consideration that I am also me in my own right and that I have a headstart on you … What I am trying to say is that you must not feel offended if you are sometimes treated simply as my wife. Always remember that what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts. But I am an established ‘creature’ in the world, and so - on occasions - you will have to live in my shadow. Nothing gives me less pleasure than this but it is a fact of life that has to be faced.
Third (and very important and nasty) blemish: jealousy. I don’t think you know what jealousy is (thank God) in the real sense of the word. I know that you have felt jealousy over Lincoln’s wife and child, but this is what I call normal jealousy, and this - to my regret - is not what I’ve got. What I have got is a black monster that can pervert my good sense, my good humour and any goodness that I have in my make-up. It is really a Jekyll and Hyde situation … my Hyde is stronger than my good sense and defeats me, hard though I try. As I told you, I have always known that this lurks within me, but I could control it, and my monster slumbered and nothing happened to awake it. Then I met you and I felt my monster stir and become half awake when you told me of Lincoln and others you have known, and with your letter my monster came out of its lair, black, irrational, bigoted, stupid, evil, malevolent. You will never know how terribly corrosive jealousy is; it is a physical pain as though you had swallowed acid or red hot coals. It is the most terrible of feelings. But you can’t help it - at least I can’t, and God knows I’ve tried. I don’t want any ex-boyfriends sitting in church when I marry you. On our wedding day I want nothing but happiness, both for you and me, and I know I won’t be happy if there is a church full of your ex-conquests. When I marry you I will have no past, only a future: I don’t want to drag my past into our future and I don’t want you to do it, either. Remember I am jealous of you because I love you. You are never jealous of something you don’t care about. O.K. enough about jealousy.
Now let me tell you something
I have seen a thousand sunsets and sunrises, on land where it floods forest and mountains with honey coloured light, at sea where it rises and sets like a blood orange in a multicoloured nest of cloud, slipping in and out of the vast ocean. I have seen a thousand moons: harvest moons like gold coins, winter moons as white as ice chips, new moons like baby swans’ feathers.
I have seen seas as smooth as if painted, coloured like shot silk or blue as a kingfisher or transparent as glass or black and crumpled with foam, moving ponderously and murderously.
I have felt winds straight from the South Pole, bleak and wailing like a lost child; winds as tender and warm as a lover’s breath; winds that carried the astringent smell of salt and the death of seaweeds; winds that carried the moist rich smell of a forest floor, the smell of a million flowers. Fierce winds that churned and moved the sea like yeast, or winds that made the waters lap at the shore like a kitten.
I have known silence: the cold, earthy silence at the bottom of a newly dug well; the implacable stony silence of a deep cave; the hot, drugged midday silence when everything is hypnotised and stilled into silence by the eye of the sun; the silence when great music ends.
I have heard summer cicadas cry so that the sound seems stitched into your bones. I have heard tree frogs in an orchestration as complicated as Bach singing in a forest lit by a million emerald fireflies. I have heard the Keas calling over grey glaciers that groaned to themselves like old people as they inched their way to the sea.
I have heard the hoarse street vendor cries of the mating Fur seals as they sang to their sleek golden wives, the crisp staccato admonishment of the Rattlesnake, the cobweb squeak of the Bat and the belling roar of the Red deer knee-deep in purple heather. I have heard Wolves baying at a winter’s moon, Red howlers making the forest vibrate with their roaring cries. I have heard the squeak, purr and grunt of a hundred multi-coloured reef fishes.
I have seen hummingbirds flashing like opals round a tree of scarlet blooms, humming like a top. I have seen flying fish, skittering like quicksilver across the blue waves, drawing silver lines on the surface with their tails. I have seen Spoonbills flying home to roost like a scarlet banner across the sky. I have seen Whales, black as tar, cushioned on a cornflower blue sea, creating a Versailles of fountain with their breath. I have watched butterflies emerge and sit, trembling, while the sun irons their wings smooth. I have watched Tigers, like flames, mating in the long grass. I have been dive-bombed by an angry Raven, black and glossy as the Devil’s hoof. I have lain in water warm as milk, soft as silk, while around me played a host of Dolphins. I have met a thousand animals and seen a thousand wonderful things … but -
All this I did without you. This was my loss.
All this I want to do with you. This will be my gain.
All this I would gladly have forgone for the sake of one minute of your company, for your laugh, your voice, your eyes, hair, lips, body, and above all for your sweet, ever surprising mind which is an enchanting quarry in which it is my privilege to delve.
Letter to his fiancée Lee, (31 July 1978), published in Gerald Durrell: An Authorized Biography by Douglas Botting (1999)
Thank you for taking the time, what a poignant letter indeed. How lovely to hear it read aloud with a polished voice.
@@曾一凡-k4q bless you.
Thank you for doing this.
@@曾一凡-k4q Thank you!
This man EMBODIES grace and royal behavior.
Even if he is acting, he UNDERSTANDS the persona.
I love Durrell! Now, when Tom H. is reading him ..... there's a different light shining through the words and images they create... thank you, master Tom! ❤
I love listening to TomH read this incredible letter over and over and over.... any words become divine calling...
whatever woman is blessed enough to end up with him....Jesus, can he read the hell out of poetry (I know it's a letter but very poetic)....I love the way he says 'everything'
I don't understand how you can judge someone only by his voice.... don't get me wrong, I quite like him aswell but he could be a total asshole behind the voice...yet you think he is some kind of god, ...because of his voice?
Women rly need to look further than the outside...men aswell though...
Sara Mosier He could just read off the shopping list for me and I’d melt lol
"Besotted" is my new favorite word.
Oh sweet Jesus.. Listening to him reading that letter was so wonderful.. I swear to God he's sweeter than chocolate.. I can listen to his voice all day and night long.. I am charmed.. and obviously doomed but so beautifully.. damnit
Let's not forget, he's not the one who actually wrote the letter.
No, but he is the who reads it with such a delight, I enjoy listening to his voice.. And by the way he doesn't need to write it, either way he stays one extraordinary and different person in a good way :)
Krisi Bieber .......Yeah, I do too.
@@fireruby544 But he could not have read it in that way without connecting very deeply with the emotions it contained.
you r never jealous of something u dont care about......so true
Tom Hiddleston worthy of reciting. He is perfection.
Gerald Durrell was an absolute riot with a pen. He is greatly missed.
I subscribed to the 'Calm' app and I often fall asleep with him reading Winnie The Pooh to me. I never get to the end of the story because I'm asleep within 10 minutes. He has such a soothing voice....
C A L M
Happy St Patrick's day
💤
Absolutely amazing letter. Nobody writes letters like this anymore. And Tom's reading just made it more real.
Love the letter!!!!
We do actually. We get rejected anyway and called "creepy" because we aren't rich, handsome, and fit! Ah such a joy to be a man in a matriarchy!
@@StarboyXL9 Maybe, just maybe, women reject you because you blame the rejection on perceived lack of wealth, looks and fitness instead of your actual shortcomings and flaws, likely flaws of character, seeing as you unironically describe the world around you as "matriarchy" ...which is laughable.
@@BoarhideGaming Guys who start with this warped mindset are known as incels. In their subculture, they can become quite dangerous when they become deeply obsessional.
@@janebrown7231 Yeah, I know about incels and MGTOWs and the whole shebang. Scary mindset. There's a good reason militaries and police forces around the world have started teaching their cadets about these groups as potentially dangerous groups.
...aaand that's how you brighten up a winter Monday!
So true this just made my day
Alessandra Bertoldi Hey winter is the best! Well..........you know When you wake up, it's warm in the bed you look outside the window, you see snow, and boats in the fjord. you see the snowy mountans across the fjord. And you go make a cup of coco sit by the window and listen to this. Now that has to be one of the most fantastical things in life.........ok that guy is magical tho.
Alessandra Bertoldi
That's how you brighten up ANY day.
Hi everyone! Not only does he have an exquisite voice with great tonality, he is an exquisite public speaker with great delivery. He matches his body movements and expressions with the reading material. In otherwords, one very consumate Professional ! Hail Tom !
Man I wish I could meet him someday
Oh my god... It hurts to know that you can never have that... -cries- where's all the gentlemen....
We are here. Just find a man who admires Hiddleston as an actor and a gentleman; he may not be Hiddleston, but he might be decent and loving and romantic. And in this world where life and happiness are so short, grab for what and for whom you can get. Love and Romance are the only things that make life worth living.
Double D -- Too old now.
Double E You write like a beautiful confident soul sir. It's rare. I wish you well.
Double E I relate more with you then all these fangirls. Though I'm a girl. It's Tom's reflection of an ideology or truth and unashamed vulnerability. Something a picture of relationship that we wish to see more of in this life.
Jessica Georgen They got killer by Americans(´∀｀*)
Glorious in strengh and weakness, this means love ! As a man, i fully agree with the comment saying "don't settle for less than this", stand up for yourselves, ladies !
He truly has a gift. It's amazing to me how he can so wonderfully and truthfully capture and express so many forms of art. Just incredible.
close your eyes and imagine Loki
Gamer GC I did :D
BlueParrot Games
Lol...
I plead the fifth on if I do that...
You read my mind XD
oh gawd....now i cant stop
Same 🥰
His voice is so mesmerising and charming, it's music to my ears. I could listen to that voice all day and not even get bored. It really captivated me
That's exactly was I felt. Gosh He ist incredible and touches my heart.
Stumbled across this by accident and now CANNOT stop watching/listening to it. My heart soars every time I hear it! Is it just me who pretends for those twelve minutes that Tom's written that letter himself and he's reading it just for me? *swoons* If only!! xx
He is so nice he is my neighbour and i do swoon when talking to him.
@@ilanataub9169 It would be awesome to be his neighbor, except for the paparazzi hanging out there.
@@ilanataub9169 you are lucky 😀😇
Dam girl I thought he had written it just for me !
If Tom had actually written that narcissist's handbook, we should be running away as fast as possible. Since he didn't, I'll join the queue for him!
Goodness. Im so glad no one ever wrote me a letter like that. Im such an un romantic that that would end the relationship. I once got a card on valentines day and never even opened it. I found it years later and it was from a sweet young man (we were 16/17 with whom I was friends....or so I thought. Poor chap must have been hurt.
That was truly beautiful.I've read Gerald Durrell's work and enjoyed it tremendously,but this love letter is,in my opinion,the best thing he ever wrote,and Tom really brought it to life.
I've read all of Gerald Durrell's work, and have all of his books too...and HAD NO IDEA about this letter...I even thought it was a made up letter it was so perfect, until I came across your comment and went BACK to the intro of the video...baffled and delighted...I even closed my eyes while listening to visualize such richness in vocabulary. So THANK YOU for pointing it out...I shall cherish this video and look for the letter online, printed and put it inside one of his books. Thank you again.
Thank goodness someone knows who wrote this.
Spent a significant part of my adolescence tracking down his books in Edinburgh's second-hand bookshops. Now they still sit on a bookshelf in pride of place, cheerfully disintegrating.
(The old Penguin editions are not the most durable of objects.)
For anyone reading: SEEK OUT HIS BOOKS. God they're good - I laughed so hard it hurt at points, and the joy in them is irreplaceable.
I thought it was going one way, laughingly, and then the pivot,and I cried at the sincerity of his words. A truly beautiful attestation of love.
Watching the ladies in the background. Goofy grins all around while Tom is reading. Very similar to my own huge goofy grin.. 😆
I listened to this while I did my work...I don't know why but I was not distracted at all. His voice was so soothing that it was like music. The only time I got distracted was when I looked up and just stared at him 'cause he's pretty to look at 😂
This is the ONLY actor that does things like this. No one else comes even close.
Please tell me this man has some God damn flaws. Otherwise, the fact that I will never marry or even meet him will kill me. People shouldn't be allowed to be this fucking fantastic.
Flaws:
He...
He um...
Shit
Nope.
I got nothing.
I'm pretty sure he's perfect.
Nhu Tran This is the opposite of a flaw
Ah at a guess, maybe some cynicism, or geekiness, or the anger and impatience that quick witted people sometimes have. Having to be careful of his look for his work, which can be seen as vanity. Professional and loving his work, which can mean not available day to day, with variations in moods because of the different characters played, can be felt as self centered. Being so gifted and talented that everyone follows them and they have to be very strong willed to not fall into temptation. Being difficult to live with because we could feel that we can never be good enough and people put the people next to him in the shadows, he has to be mindful enough to put himself in the shadows, very hard to do and not instinctive, and he loves the spotlight or he wouldn't work as he does... The people loving him would have to be very sure of themselves, being that talented can attract vultures, which can seriously affect the mental health.
Feeling better about it?
i mean its not even overrated that just amazing cause people admire truly flawless people,flaws indeed are sometimes attractive but this man hes just something i cant get over with
@@jenwho1212 this is true and i also understand one thing that people with flaws wont be appreciated much because he is so flawless but one thing is ive seen so many actors and ive seen chaotic and ones with flaws but this human is just genuinely this nice and sane,i dont really think he tries to be that hes absolutely real or else he would break out,im sure he has hardships as well, but im also sure hes a genuine peace and i mean peace so yeah that makes him so different and you know the real world has so much cruelty and chaos going on so people just fall into his peaceful character,im sure he feels bad that he cannot be there for the lot,but he tries. and he loves acting as his proffesion,he isnt for spotlight because he absolutely never complained when his life wasnt this higlighted as it is now. well thats kinda all, we humans want peace after all,its normal for people to be flawed and to be flawless,not everything is bad not everything is good so yeah,maybe his character has a ratio of more sanity in it
The writer sounds like he is in love with himself and with the act of writing, not with the person to whom the letter was written.
Pretty words, beautiful reader, alarming red flags in the meaning.
If you saw the series about the Durrells in Corfu Gerald Durrell was the youngest son who was an amazing animal lover. It was a lovely series written by Gerald about his English family living in Corfu for 4 years, very financially strapped, and how they managed to thrive in a strange country. It is available on PBS Passport and I cannot recommend it highly enough, you will understand Gerald much better. He was about 30 years older than his wife.
The definition of "self projecting" is assuming your interpretation of "events" in correct, in this case the love affair and marriage of these two can only be truely seen and understood through your experience which of course cannot be floored, has no rickles, bias or imperfection. His command of the English language, life experiences and personal experieces have made him who he is.
Beautiful letter.... this is why we need postal services and to educate children to write letters and for us to get back to writing letters...
He needs to do an audio book. It will be a best seller
If you truly love her, you wont let her sit there in your shadow, each of us has his own shadows and demons fighting and discovering through life, leaving her in your shadow means that she should deal with 2 shadows yours and hers, which is more than one person can handle. He could of said, I want you under my wing, instead in my shadow, which reflect security and safety, but that was away from what he wants.
He wants all lights to be focused on him on stage while she stays in the backstage in the dark without any role to play in his scene of life.
Love brings both to light, you both pull each other towards it, without surrendering to the darkness of shadows. Acknowledging the other, respect and appreciate him/her.
What he said was not love, but a narcissism/ submissive relationship.
Tom: Because I love you..
Me: 🎶🎵love me, love me, say that you love me 🎵🎵🎵🎶🎼
Wonder full
Wow
Nice! Vois! Love you tom (Loki)
The last part of the letter was brilliant. Also, Tom Hiddleston's voice is a generous gift to the world. I could hear him speak all day long. I sat with my eyes closed, just listening to him and that warmed my heart in a strange kind of way. I love him and his accent and everything he does.
“I want nothing else in this life than to be with you.”
}}}}}Shuddering.{{{{{
Some eye-opening comments revealing the author and the setting, thank you!
I watched first, the read some comments- and went from happy to sad, both by way of tears.
It reads as the sweetest thing a person could say to another, if like me you don't know, or as i found after the comments, a proposal full of hinted trial and tribulation.
Ain't Love grand!
Wow! I love it when people use vocabulary the way it's meant to be used. Never stop increasing your vocabulary. Learn a word a day. Read to yourself, write to others and be read to. 🧡🧡
I'm so in love with him. All of him. 😍😍
Man, that Gerald Durrell could write and of course Tom Hiddleston's reading of the letter is freaking awesome!
Finally - ONE person in the comments who actually knows who Gerald Durrell was. A small spark in the roiling sea of wokeism pop science.
It's nice to have someone care about you that much, and be that self-aware, but I can only hope she knew enough of him before to be able to calculate how big of a problem the "treat you as my wife" and the "I can't do anything about this raging jealousy" might become. People do have pasts, they don't disappear. There's potential there, but I really hope they talked this though, esp since the letter hints (like some comments) at a huge power imbalance.
Tom can read to me anytime, btw :)
Love Tom ❤️ Feel for Jacquie (1st wife) having to hear the spiel he wrote to this woman (whilst they were still married), especially when she'd given up so much of her life to "live in his shadow"
Ugh yeah that would be awful! Under normal circumstances she wouldn't have ever read or heard it though, right? I hope not.
What a scum and ruins this poem for me.
She gracefully cited his alcoholism in the divorce.
This man is truly a gift.
This is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard from a man in my life. Why can't all men be like Tommy? He's my ideal. And I will always love Tom Hiddleston not only for his beautiful body, or voice, or mind, but above all for his beautiful soul.
this is just so heartfelt. that man was so in love with her. do men still have it in their heart to write I don't know but it is lovely
i wish people still thought this way.. the wonderfully eloquent play on words. life would be much more musical
Some do. But no one wishes to hear the words. Too much impatience, too much utilitarian thought, or an inability to comprehend.
To feel so torn!
Tom Hiddleston is precious. And I love that he reads. And I love how he cares about love (and feminism).
Now this letter though, is giving me a hard time. Though I suppose it's probably very fitting for it's time?
I love all the beautiful descriptions of bautiful things, but they're a little too long winded from today's perspective and for that specific letter. Other things we learn about the person who writes:
- It's OK to have dark sides and even OK-ish to be at loss how to handle it, but today's perspective is, that you should have professional help rather than dumpig it on your partner in a "deal with it way". Even if we have "deal breaker" qualities or circumstances at hand, how rude (today) to demand acceptance rather than asking if the other person can live with these sides? Being accountable and showing how we intend to manage our own beast and what types of support we'd like to have (but have no right to demand).
- It's OK to be sensual and overflow with emotion, adoration and even lust. What I think though of a letter that is supposed to be a love letter to me, but spends the most time on them, how they feel, what they want .... . From today's perspective, I would hope the same love letter would speak about the sender and their viewpoint, but also ask more questions, ask for the recepients hopes and wants, their wellbeing. Panting a picture alone and of another person and our relationship, rather than striving to explore both together, is by far more telling, by far more loving.
- I am plainly, and very personally, discomforted by the imbalance of words on outer beauty versus inner qualities when it comes to her. While we get lots of inner "horrors" about him and then looooots of wordly beauty from him. He says he is not good for her, and he is certainly right. A powerful man, jealous to the point of disregulation, demanding external obedience in exchange for compensations "off the clock" and in way that will not give her any power outside of what he's willing to give or not give behind closed doors. Bragging about his observations and speakig of gladly givig away, what can never be taken from him and would make little difference if never experienced - unless it's with her. A man who is very right about this being bad for her, yet speaking very little about what he will do make up for it (as the purposals are fairly empty). A man like this, in a world where women frequently die and suffer of the men closest to them, while being expected to be accomodating and understanding for "boys will be boys" and men in love losing not just reason, but control.
It's a bittersweet video experience. A good revisit of what works and what not, what I've learnt, what I hop to see and not see in future loveletters. And it helps that it is read by a man I care for. As that calms the ringing alarm bells in my body enough to give thought to why I know love, and know how it can be consuming and captivating and intense and beautiful as all the pittoresque nature descriptions, and yet ...... this letter is not about love. It's on the many things conflated with it. It's a story of how far we've come in telling love and human relationships (amongst each other and within) apart. So we could bring them together again, in better ways, and with safe forms of embracing all shadows.
Well, she married him the following year (1979), co-authored books with him, wrote books of her own about their shared experiences and work, and remained with him until his death in 1995
He is so enchanting he sounds like melted chocalate
😂😂👌🏻 so true
Yes, Lafever 1888, and he probably knows how to spell “chocolate”.
@@judeirwin2222 pedant
Tom Hiddleton! He's still my #1 pick to read poetry, letters,...even the darn, boring phone book. A truly soothing, hypnotic, sensual voice. Perfect cadence, right pauses, beautiful inflection. As a poetess, it would be a dream to have him read & record any of my pieces...My poetic self is loko for Loki! Sending this dream out there, into a welcoming/listening universe! :-)
Nicely Said... :)
Writing letters is a lost art....I would be over the moon to get a letter like this....
Mesmerizing. What a gift he has.
Rohna H what a gift he is!
It's still one of the finest letters, uf not words ever written
Watching this in 2018. Ugh, my heart Tom. Please don't stop.
Ma Jane watching this in 2019, lovely poem,, lovely man.
Who knew that Gerald wrote so poetically. Amazing that his writing overshadowed his self proclaimed brother. Of all the Darrrell's he was the wild child who became the most acclaimed and successful of the 4 children.
I want nothing more in life to find someone whom I love as much as the writer adores his beloved, and to be loved in return just the same
He and Ben Cumberbatch could read the telephonebook and i would love it! ☺Just to listen to their voice...
A Renaissance Man: speaks several languages, sings, dances, acts, and a mesmerizing voice!
Can I just have him?? 😭😭💕
Smiled so hard my face hurts
I came here because, Wow, Tom Hiddleston reads a letter live! and then I saw it: Gerald Freakin' Durrell, one of my favorite authors, wrote the letter. Neat!
Surely one of the greatest, most beautiful love letters ever written, from one of my favourite authors.
Wow... I really recommend watching this with rainy moods in the background or any jazz music because it makes the experience even better.
The next Prime minister
😂
Talantic What??? hahahaha!!! 😂😁
WTF HAHAHAHA
Until I stumbled on Tom Hiddleston l can't get enough of him. Lordy Lordy what a lucky girl his fiance is!!!
Swoon at the words; swoon at the reading; and swoon for the handsome gentleman 🥰😍🤩🤗
Back again. I can't get enough of his sweet, sexy voice and this wonderful letter.
I've seen things... seen things you little people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium... I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments... they'll be gone.
Inspirational, funny. Such vivid language. This letter makes me wonder what happened to us. Nobody writes to each other like this anymore.
I always cry at the end. It's so beautifully written. Oh to receive a letter like this, its amazing, I'm glad that they had a long and happy marriage. Made me laugh 😂 , and at the end made me cry again! 😢
I cried with joy and awe, sorrow and regret, but mainly with Love, both at the beauty and majesty of the words themselves, but also at the sheer compassion, insight, and talent of the performance of their reading. Thank you
Tom Hiddleston - oh my! This will bring Literature back!😍😍
This letter could melt an iceberg.❤
SPEECHLESS. I AM SPEECHLESS.
Tom reads it beautifully. The letter is written smoothly and poetically. Everything about this is delightful.
what everyone wishes to hear from the one that matters.❤
Well... HE is a true and great actor.
Not ever taking away from his reading because that is beyond words. But come on, the beauty of this writing itself is stunning.
well... now I'm crying. he's such a beautiful human being.
(and he made this jealousy-part sound Loki af XD)
i just seem to always come back to this video…
He is a true artist. A true actor and orator.
My heart is beating so fast that I can hear it 😍 That's the effect of his voice 😍
Fueling my fanfictions
😘😘😘😘😘😘
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
If I wasn’t already happily married, hearing THIS man read THIS letter could forever set the bar impossibly high for all other men. Being that I am already happily married, it just makes me want to bonk my hubby over the head with a pillow and demand why he isn’t writing me letters like this, and reading them to me like this… sigh.
Durrell was one of the first authors I adored. Thanks so much for this, Mr. Hiddleston.
Tom's voice is as smooth as glycerine covered in sandalwood oil.
This is such a masterpiece. This is the most honest proclaimation of love I've ever seen.
Also, this is obnoxious of me to point out but the middle part of the letter where he talks about his faults and shortcomings sounded scaringly like something Loki would say to his lover. ('You might have to live in my shadow a lot', 'Monstrous jealousy') XD
I read all of his books and I adored him, what a good writer
Damn! I recognized who wrote the letter without looking down at the comment! I love Gerald Durrell!
seriously, he is so hilarious in such a distinctive way.
He's so adorable, smiling at the text like that. *swoons*
That is quite possibly the most romantic thing I have ever heard. Beautiful.
I hope he will be the voice of countless hours of tape with stories on them..
Imagine fifthy shades read by him...
Alas, all this, without the negative aspects of - "You'll find yourself having to stand in my shadow" and the raging jealousy, describes how I feel when looking for love, or someone to join with me down 'The path of life' so to speak..
Throughout my life, I have repeatedly been this kind of solid, genuine 'Good Guy' for every partner I have had, but alas, been screwed over, cheated on, even suffered vicious domestic abuse by one, so, I decided a while a go "Maybe relationships are not for me?".
I have also felt, unfortunately, that those that I have dated disbelieved in my intent, thinking that I was not all that I said I was... Oh...far from it. The majority of this letter pretty much details the truths of my ways, my devotion towards the one I come to care about, my considerations to their needs, my effort into the relationship, my unique creativity in coming up with ways to give my 'Significant one' a smile, a laugh, and that warm 'Loved/cherished' feeling each and every day. all that and much more my heart and my mind I have to give for a woman I come to love.
But... It seems, being a 'Good Guy', a 'True Gentleman' and such doesn't cut it for the majority of the women I have met on dates, as 'Looks' and materialistic beliefs hamper them from seeing all the good in me that I would truly promise them if things develop from strangers to friends to partners, that is if it successfully wen that way...
All this and more good, would indeed be revealed, if given, just... a little time...
For you see, I am not a selfish man. Far from it, I am one who mostly gains pleasure from seeing that my one and only, feels pleasure, is happy, is content, feels... Fulfilled...
So, at 51 years old, and, I am alone... Bitter? Hell no. I do smile when I see a genuine couple of any age, being on TV/RUclips or whatever, or if I see them holding hands out in public, or interacting in those best 'Couple' ways possible, as, there is no better feeling than being, truly loved... Do I miss that feeling? Yes. Do I expect that someone will 'Enter my life', no, I don't expect it, it would be a very welcome surprise, but hey, they say 'Life is full of surprises'... So who knows?
Anyway, ramble over,. I like hearing these letters read out by actors and such, gives little snippets of other peoples lives per say. And Tom (a fellow Brit) is a great actor (MAN CAN HE DANCE TOO!!! Hahah).
So, to finish, all the best to all of you out there that are "All loved up", cherish every day and every moment, and keep that spark there that keeps the magic happening in your lives, whatever way that may be, and, that works for you and yours. 👌😊😊😊 😎🇬🇧
Swooning. Definitely, swooning.
Thank you RUclips for recommending this to me