Sotheby's to auction Mick Jagger's handwritten love letters

Former lover Marsha Hunt has given 10 letters that were written by the Rolling Stones frontman in the summer of 1969

Handwritten letters from the Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to his former lover Marsha Hunt will be auctioned in London next month.

Hunt is an American-born singer who was the inspiration for the Stones' 1971 hit Brown Sugar and the mother of Jagger's first child.

Sotheby's said on Saturday that Hunt has tasked the auction house with selling 10 letters written from the set of Jagger's film Ned Kelly, which was shot in Australia.

Hunt said the letters chronicling their "delicate love affair" and secret history touch on subjects such as the first moon landing and John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

"When a serious historian finally examines how and why Britain's boy bands affected international culture and politics, this well-preserved collection of Mick Jagger's handwritten letters will be a revelation," she said in a statement.

The Sotheby's books specialist Gabriel Heaton said the letters, sent in the summer of 1969, show a "poetic and self-aware" 25-year-old Jagger.

"They provide a rare glimpse of Jagger that is very different from his public persona: passionate but self-contained, lyrical but with a strong sense of irony," said Heaton.

The collection, which includes song lyrics and a Rolling Stones playlist, will go under the hammer on December 12. - AP