Someone shining the spotlight on the lost art of postcard writing is Tom Jackson. In 2017 he released a book (pictured) off the back of his popular Twitter (now X) account @PastPostcard. In its introduction, author Mark Haddon says: "This book is not quite visual art and it's not quite social history. It's a collection of very short and somewhat cryptic stories set in the drowned Atlantis of the Sixties and Seventies."

Tom says he became fond of postcards as a child – both keeping those he received and spending his holiday pocket money on cards as souvenirs. “I stuffed them in a shoebox, then about 20 years ago I got a bit more interested in postcards and started collecting them in a more serious way – particularly cards from the 1900s. But any that interested me really,” he says.

The fascinating history of holiday postcards – and what the future holds