A remarkable letter, written by a schoolgirl in 1969 and containing startlingly accurate visions of future technology, has been discovered hidden behind a sofa in Cambridgeshire.
The Sofa's Secret: A Glimpse into 1980
The fascinating document was unearthed by upholsterer Peter Beckerton, 67, from Peterborough. While restoring a second-hand sofa for a client, he found the note tucked down the back. Dated 23 February 1969, the letter was written by an 11-year-old pupil imagining what life would be like in 1980.
Peter's wife, Rosa Beckerton, was stunned when he showed her the find. "I couldn't believe it. I thought oh my god, look at this," she said. "It was just so interesting, because looking at it today she's got a lot of her predictions kind of right - but in her childish innocent way she thought it would all happen in ten years."
Spot-On Tech Prophecies from a Child's Mind
The unnamed girl's predictions showcase a vivid, if accelerated, imagination for technological change. She begins by stating, "The year is 1980," and describes sitting on a "cushion of air." She recalls the televisions of 1969 as "a square box with knobs," but in her future, they are "a big screen with knobs on your chair arm to switch it on and off."
Most astonishingly, she anticipates the video communication revolution, predating services like Zoom by decades. Describing her husband coming home from the office, she writes about the telephone: "In 1969 the telephone was a square box thing with a resiver [sic] on top of it. But now it is still a resiver, but you can see the people you are talking to, for there is a screen where you can see the people. It is a bit like a television."
A Hopeful Search for the Author
The letter, which features a teacher's corrections in red pen and the assessment 'Good', also includes other futuristic musings. The girl imagines a world of electric doors operated by buttons and replaces conventional meals with a special piece of chewing gum that provides taste and nutrition, eliminating washing-up.
Rosa has decided to share the letter publicly in the hope that the writer, who would now be approximately 62 years old, might see it and come forward. "My husband has found all sorts of rubbish down the side of sofas and furniture before," she said, "but never anything as interesting as this. I just wanted to share it in the hopes that maybe the author might see it and recognise it."
The letter concludes with the young prophet reflecting, "Really when I think back over those ten years, things have changed tremendously." While her timeline was out by a few decades, her vision of a connected, technologically transformed world proved to be eerily prescient.
