I remember my first typewriter, mainly because we still have it, and also because it belongs to my mother. An Olivetti Lettera 22, now a design classic, a small, portable typewriter that came with its own cleaning brush, heavy felt base and zip up case. I was four years old when I started to tap away on it, and throughout my childhood if I wanted to use it to write out a poem I did. It even typed out my first full children’s story until I bought my own which was never as good.
Of course going through seven drafts for every story and being environmentally sensitive I hated the waste of paper and moved to computers which were seen as having less impact on the rubbish dumps of the world – how things change! The Lettera sits waiting to be used while my first three computers are all junked and I have a case filled with parts no one will ever want to use as they are out-of-date.
But as the final typewriter factory closed last week I reflect that when they were first made typing pools put the amanuensis out of work and now typing pools have gone to computer rooms and digital copying there will come a time when computers vanish, and we all talk to some hologram about the things we need to be written. I would not even want to guess what comes after a virtual secretary.
Like scribes before us, there will always be a few people who keep typewriters and know how they were made and how to repair them and even one old eccentric in the shires of England who will refuse to use anything else.