Life by Satellite

When Christine and Linda both joined an online message board to discuss “Women Online” in 1993, neither were expecting a transatlantic “special relationship” to develop — a correspondence which would see them sharing the highs and lows of their personal and professional lives.

Life by Satellite follows the development of their friendship online, from tentative beginnings to deeply personal crises and a secret which one of them doesn’t know how to broach. Their weekly — sometimes daily — exchanges take you behind the veneer that we so often erect for strangers. Soon nothing was beyond limits, as the two women became best friends.

The correspondence unfolds over a 16 month period and presents a unique picture of life in 1993-94, before most people dreamed of owning a personal computer, let alone connecting it to the Internet. Think “84 Charing Cross Road” with modems. The pen friends are unselfconsciously witty, scathing, and (at times) heart breaking. Reading their messages is like opening your daughter’s or wife’s diary, and you won’t want to put it down.