Hoax letter writers
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This page covers various hoax letter writers.
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[edit] Henry Root
Henry Root is the creation of writer William Donaldson who wrote to numerous public figures with unusual or outlandish questions and requests. The letters were published as The Henry Root Letters and The Further Letters of Henry Root and a compilation volume, The Complete Henry Root Letters.
The Henry Root character inspired the ITV mini-series, Root Into Europe, starring George Cole.
[edit] Henry Raddick
There is a lexical link between Henry Root and Henry Raddick (Raddick is an anglification of Radix, meaning root) who writes 'unusual' reviews (bordering on crank/prank territory) for Amazon.com. Nevertheless, speculation has been rife as to who Henry Raddick is. Besides Donaldson, suspects include Charles, Prince of Wales. This has been denied by royal staff.
The same person is also the author of various fake reviews purporting to be by Andrew Lloyd Webber[citation needed].
[edit] Francis Wagstaffe
Francis Wagstaffe is the creation of the Reverend Toby Forward, BEd, MA, and the Reverend David Johnson, BA (Cantab), sometime President of the Cambridge Union, now Chaplain to the Oxford Union.
Wagstaffe wrote to prominent people, mostly Anglican bishops, but also others including Michael Green, Conrad Swan, Ted Hughes, Roy Jenkins, Roger Freeman, Cilla Black, Rocco Forte, Stella Rimmington, and Melvyn Bragg as well as organisations including the Royal Air Force, the Royal Artillery, the British Broadcasting Corporation, British Rail, Madame Tussauds, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Russian Embassy.
In the earlier letters he poses as a purveyor of Cumberland sausages and former prep school proprietor who is seeking guidance on the Christian faith, and in the later letters he poses as His Grace the Most Reverend the Archbishop of the Old Northern Catholick Church of the East Riding Mar Francis II Metropolitan and Primate, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of Saint John of Beverly (1st Class).
Published as Toby Forward and David Johnson, eds, The Spiritual Quest of Francis Wagstaffe (Leominster: Gracewing, 1994). The publication supported St Peter's Young Homeless Support Centre in Highfields, Leicester.
[edit] Others
Other prank mail and reviewers include:
- Ed Broth - also possibly the creation of comedian Jerry Seinfeld
- Robin Cooper who wrote The Timewaster Letters - the creation of Robert Popper.
- Sterling Huck, who wrote The Sterling Huck Letters, published in 2002.
- Ted L. Nancy - possibly the creation of comedian Jerry Seinfeld
- W. Morgan Petty - the nom de plume of Brian Bethell.
- H. Rochester Sneath - the fictional headmaster of the fictional British public school Selhurst, created by Humphry Berkeley
- Lazlo Toth - the creation of Don Novello, the actor who played Father Guido Sarducci on Saturday Night Live.
- Bill Geerhart, who wrote The Billy Letters, published by Radar Magazine in 2008.
- Edna Welthorpe was a prudish middle-aged housewife who was strongly opposed to her creator Joe Orton's plays.
- Wayne Redhart 'top 500' spoof reviewer of over 200 items on amazon.co.uk (currently ranked as the 177th most 'helpful' reviewer on the site)
- Rudy Schumann - author of The Rudy Letters
[edit] See also
- Diary of a Nobody - a fictional diary written by George Grossmith
