"By turns confessional, funny and moving, this anthology of secrets collected during lockdown is an endlessly entertaining and fascinating document of those strange, strange times."
Shifting from shocking confessions, to relatable emotions and experiences, Eleanor Tattersfield’s Lockdown Secrets is an ingenious concept of a book that will make an entertaining and elegant gift. It all began back in the dark days of a long COVID lockdown, when designer Eleanor Tattersfield heard a podcast about a 1980s answering machine confession line, leading her to “wonder what might happen if people had a similar opportunity at this strangest of times to document their own lockdown confessions.” Somewhat fortuitously, later that day, Eleanor found a box of unused postcards from the 1930s - “It felt like fate. I rushed upstairs, set up the type LOCKDOWN SECRETS and the shop’s address, and printed away.”
Following an Instagram shout-out - “I'll send you a postcard, you send me a secret” - replies flooded in, a selection of which are reproduced in this gorgeous book. Many of the cards are resplendent with illustrations, elaborate typography, clever collages, and intriguing handwriting, and all of them capture the shared experience of lockdown in all its complex strangeness. Indeed, the author noted a number of recurring themes - “food fetishes, masturbation, loneliness, breaking the rules, sex, love and, surprisingly, the love of lockdown.”
Honest and enlightening, what an extraordinarily unique document of such extraordinary times this book is.

A compelling collection of anonymous postcards sent during lockdown, revealing hilarious, salacious, relatable and sometimes heartbreaking secret confessions. In the thick of the 2021 coronavirus lockdown, designer and shopowner Eleanor Tattersfield put out a call on Instagram: 'I'll send you a postcard, you send me a secret'. Lockdown Secrets is an astonishing record of what happened next.
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
A compelling collection of anonymous postcards sent during lockdown, revealing hilarious, salacious, relatable and sometimes heartbreaking secret confessions. In the thick of the 2021 coronavirus lockdown, designer and shopowner Eleanor Tattersfield put out a call on Instagram: 'I'll send you a postcard, you send me a secret'.
Lockdown Secrets features in the following genres: Humour, Gift Books, Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure, Humour collections and anthologies, Diaries, letters and journals, Stationery and miscellaneous items, Biographies & Autobiographies, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Non-Fiction Books of the Month, Recommendations
Hardback, Ebook. £8.99. Digital. Available Immediately. Country restrictions apply..
Lockdown Secrets was written by Eleanor Tattersfield and published by Batsford
£8.99. Digital. Available Immediately. Country restrictions apply..