In November 2004, I printed 3,000 postcards inviting people to share a secret with me: something that was true, something they had never told anyone. I handed out cards at subway stations, I left them in art galleries and I slipped them between the pages of library books. Slowly, secrets found their way to my mailbox.

After several weeks I stopped passing out postcards but ­secrets kept coming. Home-made postcards made from cardboard, old photographs, wedding invitations and other personal items – artfully decorated – arrived from all over the world. Some of the ­secrets were written in Portuguese, French, German, Hebrew, and even Braille.

One of the first PostSecrets I received looked like ­nothing more than a worn postcard filled with two shopping lists. But squeezed into the corner was a soulful admission: “I am still ­struggling with what I’ve become.”
No two secrets are identical, but every ­secret has a story. From the clues on this card, I imagined that this person had an internal struggle about sharing the secret. It was so difficult that they tried to use up the postcard as a shopping list, twice. But the urge to be reconciled with a painful ­personal truth was so strong that they were ultimately able to find courage to share it.
Secrets have stories; they can also offer truths. After seeing thousands of secrets, I understand that sometimes, when we ­believe we are keeping a secret, that secret is ­actually keeping us.

A New Zealander recently wrote the ­following about what they had learnt from the PostSecret project: “The things that make us feel so abnormal are actually the things that make us all the same.”

I invite you to contemplate each of the shared secrets in these pages: to imagine the stories behind the personal revelations and to search for the meaning they hold. As you read these postcards you may not only be surprised by what you learn about others, but also reminded of your own secrets that have been ­hiding. That is what happened to me.

After reading one particular PostSecret, I was reminded of a childhood humiliation ­– something that happened to me more than 30 years ago. I never thought of it as a secret, yet I had never told anyone about it. From a memory that felt fresh, I chose my words carefully and expressed my secret on a postcard. I shared it with my wife and daughter.

The next day, I went to the post office, and physically let it go into a mailbox. I walked away feeling lighter.

View some intriguing PostSecrets postcards

© Frank Warren. PostSecret is published by Orion Books this month and is available from BooksFirst priced £15.29 (RRP £16.99), free P&P, on 0870 1608080; timesonline.co.uk/booksfirstbuy. An accompanying exhibition, sponsored by The Times, will be at Foyles bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London WC2 from Nov 20 until Dec 10 (020-7440 3252; www.postsecret.blogspot.com)

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