It’s a job most of us have done – or will have to do – sort through a parent’s personal effects and correspondence after they have died.
Most of it is made up of old bank statements, or scribbled notes to friends or loved ones.
If you are very lucky it can give you an insight into the life of a parent of which you were totally unaware.
After all who thinks of a parent in their careless glittering youth, that heyday before you were born?
I was reminded of this when Terry Wainwright from Thornton-Cleveleys near Blackpool was going through his mum’s old letters – and came up with a remarkable find.
He said: “Many years ago, my mum told me how in the early sixties she and her sister had briefly been dating Mick Jagger and Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones. But I never fully believed her.
“While working through her stuff, I’ve found personal letters with messages from the band and signatures. I did my research too and all of it adds up.”
It turned out to be one of the most incredible pieces of rock memorabilia I have seen in many years.
Not only do they give a glimpse of London from the swinging sixties – littered with some of the most famous names of the decade – they give an insight into a band on the brink of global frame.
They also shine an intimate light on Brian Jones, the band’s founder member and perhaps its most troubled member who, a few years after the letters were written, would be found dead from an overdose aged just 27.
They were penned by Terry’s aunt Sylvia to her sister Lynn and reveal a specific time in theRolling Stones history – when they were famous, but not yet the global superstars they would later become.
The also paint an intimate portrait of everyday life inside London’s burgeoning pop aristocracy.
Sylvia writes casually of parties at Mick Jagger’s flat, nights out with “all the pop stars”, plans for the band’s American tour and her apparent romance with Brian Jones.
One letter begins: “That party at Mick’s was an absolute WOW! Everybody was there and I mean everybody.”
Elsewhere, Sylvia mentions “Jeff from the Yardbirds”, references model Jean Shrimpton’s sister Christine, and describes social gatherings in Chiswick packed with musicians and “loads of boys”.
The letters are particularly significant for their repeated and references to Brian Jones.
Rather than depicting the troubled rock icon of later legend, the correspondence captures him as a young man immersed in a carefree social whirl – bringing flowers and Easter eggs, leaving jigsaw puzzles behind after parties and dropping into Sylvia’s flat to add affectionate handwritten notes to her letters.
In one especially evocative passage, Sylvia writes: “Brian should be here in about ¼ of an hour. It doesn’t seem 2 minutes since I got up.”
Jones himself contributes messages directly onto the letters, signing one: “Hi love! Brian here. How are you? Pity I wasn’t here to see you when you come next week. Never mind – maybe someday. Lots of love, Brian.”
Another note carries the signatures of Brian Jones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards alongside Sylvia’s playful remark: “Brian is reading over my shoulder now.”
In his short life Brian Jones had a famously turbulent romantic life with his high-profile girlfriends including models, actresses and musicians.
Among the list were the German-Italian model Anita Pallenberg – who left Jones for his bandmate Keith Richards, Linda Lawrence (who later married the signer Donovan) and the German singer Nico.
But these letters have a charmingly naïve ‘boy next door’ feel to them – Jones the thoughtful boyfriend who dropped off 1,000-piece jigsaws at the flat – a thousand miles away from his later highly-strung relationships.
Aside from the references to her famous pals the archive captures an ordinary young life at the dawn of swinging London – hangovers and aspirin, hopes of attending the Royal College of Art to study dress design, rented rooms in Chiswick where “the landlord will be away all weekend, so we are having a party”.
One letter even mentions actor Roger Moore – then starring as Simon Templar in television series The Saint – whom Sylvia had apparently served at work.
Music memorabilia specialists say the letters are particularly important because they pre-date the full mythologising of the 1960s counterculture.
For me, the letters’ value lies not simply in the celebrity signatures they include, but in the candid, unfiltered social history they preserve.
Collectors see thousands of signed scraps. What is rare is a first-hand contemporary account with an unknown, and touching, romantic connection.
What a wonderful find for their owner and priceless insight into his mother’s youth.
The archive has an estimate of £1,500-£2,000 at our music sale on June 10.
Auction Details
Auction: The Music, Vinyl & Film Memorabilia Auction
Auction date: 10th June 2026 | 10am
Location: Hansons’ Derbyshire Saleroom
Auction contact: [email protected]
Catalogue/bidding: www.hansonslive.co.uk | www.the-saleroom.com
