Plum Sykes’s Latest Novel Has Inspired a Line of Texting Stationary

“Darling, me and tech are like oil and water—never the twain shall meet,” Sykes tells me. “I am a total Luddite. But this app is so fresh, chic, and witty that it doesn’t feel like tech, it feels like fun. It’s absurdly easy to use, which is the game-changer for me.” Sykes describes how she was made to write letters as a child: “It was drilled into me that if I went to stay with someone, if I didn’t write and thank them, I’d never be invited back, and if someone gave me a birthday present, ditto. So I was a huge writer of thank-you letters. The rule was, the letter had to go to the other side of the page and then it was acceptable, and it had to be witty and amusing in some way.”

She finds texting a “a bit soulless, to be honest, rather mechanical, and often people don’t even say ‘Dear Plum’ or ‘Love From.’” The HiNote texts, on the other hand, have a lot of character. “I love that you can do things like send someone your contact details on a text which resembles the most beautiful Smythson stationery. Or send them a message saying ‘Call Me’ with just an old dial-up phone as the image. Believe me, everyone calls you that second!” Her “hero note” channels the idea of “a very old-school, proper piece of note paper, with a manor house engraved in maroon ink at the top, and instead of writing your name under it, as one traditionally would, and address, we just put ‘LADY OF THE FUCKING MANOR.’ It’s just so funny, and very much chimes with my latest book, Wives Like Us.”