okay, first I put the text block from a database into a text file (requests.txt) and replace the html break tags with '\n'

cat $HOME/housekeeping/requests.txt | sed -e 's/<br>/\\n/g' -e s/\&#39
+\;/\'/g > $HOME/housekeeping/requests2.txt
[download]

this gives me a text file containing for example:

Date : 2001-09-26 10:47:00
Request No. 107
Request Title: CHILDREN
Request : 1. 13 year old twin boys\n2. A boy aged 13 years old standing facing the camera\n3. A girl aged 13 years old standing facing the camera\n4. A girl & a boy aged approx 13 years old standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, Paris\n5. A girl aged approx 11 years old on a beach in Greece(or could be anot her location as long as it is not too exotic)
Format :
Deadline : 2001-9-27
Budget : £85 per pic used
Name : Louise Edgeworth
Company : Pearson Education
Country : United Kingdom
Telephone : 01279 793472
Fax : 01279 793472
Email : edgeworthl@aol.com

Then I run the perl script and use this code to format the email:

    open(REQUESTS,"/home/picturesea/housekeeping/requests3.txt") || di
+e "requests3 file not found";
 
    # Open The Mail Program
    open(MAIL,"|$mailprog -t");

    print MAIL "Bcc: $emails\n";
    print MAIL "From: chrisbarton\@postmaster.co.uk (PICTURE SEARCH)\n
+";
    print MAIL "Subject: PICTURE SEARCH REQUESTS $date\n\n";

    print MAIL "If you think you have suitable images, please CONTACT 
+THE RESEARCHER DIRECT.\n YOU DO NOT NEED TO REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.\n";
 print MAIL "$date\n";
    print MAIL "-" x 75 . "\n";
    while ($requests = <REQUESTS>) {
        print MAIL "$requests";
    }
    close(REQUESTS);
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this all works fine and the email is formatted fine, except the request text comes out:

Request : 1. 13 year old twin boys\n2. A boy aged 13 years old standing facing the camera\n3. A girl aged 13 years old standing facing the camera\n4. A girl & a boy aged approx 13 years old standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, Paris\n5. A girl aged approx 11 years old on a beach in Greece(or could be anot her location as long as it is not too exotic)

when what I want is:

Request : 1. 13 year old twin boys
2. A boy aged 13 years old standing facing the camera
3. A girl aged 13 years old standing facing the camera
4. A girl & a boy aged approx 13 years old standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, Paris
5. A girl aged approx 11 years old on a beach in Greece(or could be another location as long as it is not too exotic

ie the '\n's don't get translated as line breaks - any idea why this is?