With all my heart, Tom

BY: Zak Wojnar

Letters Live is dedicated to the art of correspondence via the written word. Back in the old days, before Facebook Messenger and cell phone text messages, people communicated with handwritten letters, placing thought and consideration into every word they sent. Whether it be romantic love letters between couples separated by great distance, family correspondence, or best friends bonding across continents, Letters Live champions that most old-fashioned method of communication.

The organization puts together events where beloved actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Capaldi, Jude Law, Ian McKellen read letters by Elvis Presley, Richard Burton, David Bowie, and Kurt Vonnegut in front of a live audience in London’s Tabernacle theater.

This video features certified dream boat, Tom Hiddleston, star of such films as Thor, Kong: Skull Island, I Saw The Light, and a brief affair with Taylor Swift, but it’s the words of British zookeeper Gerald Durrell to his future wife, Lee McGeorge, that are the true splendors on display here. Gerald was one of the most revered nature-lovers of the 20th century, known for building zoos with compassion for animals—not capitalistic money-grubbing—in mind. He loved animals and made sure that his zoos were wildlife refuges, first and foremost. Lee, who Gerald met when he was lecturing at Duke University, was studying Animal Communication, so it’s only fitting that the two would hit it off immediately, and eventually marry.

Hiddleston‘s reading of Gerald‘s words to Lee showcase the raw passion of a great man smitten by an even greater woman, cemented in print, and relayed by one of the hottest actors working today. It’s enough to make us sigh wistfully, and maybe even believe in romance again.