Thank you for all the replies it's really good to hear from people with experience. I guess the book I read which advised an email was suggesting that this would give the friend/couple private time to digest the news by themselves. However I would hope that we were close enough friends that she would be able to cry in front of me, god knows I've seen her in some sorry states!!

Maybe I will pop in after work one day for a cuppa to give her the news!

HB and I always agreed that when we fell pregnant we would wait the 12 weeks, I'm bursting at the seams now to tell now but hubby won't budge and certainly he wants our parents to be the first we tell, which kind of makes it difficult as they live the other side of the world so we have to hope to catch them at a convenient time!!