IMOGEN COOPER is one of a growing number of pen and paper traditionalists, seeing writing as an art

At 9pm on a Saturday night, four 25- year-old women are drinking two-forone cocktails and struggling to make themselves heard over the crowd in a London wine bar. 

What are we shouting about? It’s not what you’d expect. 

We’re planning in detail how many elaborately crafted cards I’ll need to make each evening in order to have them ready for Christmas. These things must be worked out properly, after all. 

My name is Imogen and I’m addicted to stationery. 

More and more Gen Zers are picking up a pen and paper to express themselves. 53 per cent of Paperchase’s customers are in their 30s, with many younger explains Imogen Cooper (pictured)

Everything in my life must be written down; typing it onto a screen just won’t do. I’ll settle for no less than paper of at least 80gsm (grams per square metre) — so thick and luxurious it almost feels like card — preferably in a beautiful floral notebook. 

For all of life’s highs and lows, friends can expect a handwritten note from me in the post in two to three working days. A birthday card or a note for a friend who is moving house, has got engaged or clinched a new job is essential. 

Inevitably, I’m always the last person to reply to friends’ news, because Royal Mail takes far longer than WhatsApp. 

But writing things down has aided my memory of these big moments, and it means I embrace others’ success rather than feeling envious of them on social media. 

Do I receive many notes back? Frankly, no. Close friends send birthday cards, but that’s about it. But my joy comes from the sending; I’m not counting the replies. 

I keep track of my daily life using pen and paper, too. Every trip to the shops is accompanied by a categorised list. If an event is not written in my Moleskine diary, there’s no way I’m going. 

I’ve been gearing up for Christmas for months now. I make my own cards, and start work in August. This year’s are lino-printed holly sprigs. In other years I made cross-stitch Christmas jumpers and macrame snowflakes. 

Imogen Cooper, 25, explains why the art of letter writing is becoming popular with a younger generation 

How strange, you may think, for a Gen Z-er like me to live by a colour-coordinated list pinned to her bedroom wall. Older people asssume our lives are organised almost exclusively online. Indeed, many worry that the art of handwriting will vanish for ever. 

But I’m just one of a growing number of pen-and-paper traditionalists, seeing writing as an art rather than a chore. 

The hashtag ‘stationery’ has racked up 1.9 billion views on ­TikTok. There are stationery ‘influencers’ with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, posting beautifully coordinated grids of daily to-do planners, pencil cases and immaculate desks. 

Online stationery shop Papier has 1.4million customers in the UK and U.S., and 53 per cent of these are Millennials in their 30s; some are younger. Chief marketing officer Colleen Conkling says: ‘Writing combats digital fatigue.’ 

That’s something I can relate to. I spend my working day looking at a computer or my mobile. So to sit at a desk with matching stationery feels more real than staring at a screen. 

I was brought up to say thank you — on paper — for every birthday and Christmas present. After a school trip to a synagogue, we had to write a thank-you note to our tour guide. Mine was a poem in rhyming couplets. I was delighted to receive a poem back. 

It is still in my ‘memories’ box, full of cherished good luck and birthday cards, plus the letter my grandmother wrote to me when I was rejected from my dream university. 

These pieces of paper are the fabric that makes up my past. We may not remember every casual word spoken or text sent, but we can always keep and treasure the thoughts we’ve written to each other in pen and ink. 

• Do you love writing letters or adore pretty stationery? Write to us via email at [email protected], or the old-fashioned way at 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT.