Former students were also able to experience Sir Stephen Cleobury’s superb musicianship and conducting skills (Obituary, 25 November). At the annual alumni weekend Cleobury would rehearse a large group of singers of varying ability for a major choral work. The rehearsal started at 4pm, and by 9pm the choir would be in a position to give a creditable public performance in the nave of the glorious King’s College chapel.
Dr Sylvia Dunkley
Sheffield
• How inspiring to read of Stephen Cleobury’s determination to drag into the 21st century the music of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. How sad that such boldness has not been matched by those responsible for the liturgical and scriptural material at this event, listened to across the world. These unchanging, archaic texts speak of a God who no longer lives, save in nostalgic reverie.
Richard Giles
Tynemouth, North Tyneside
• Re the “quiz of the decade” (Letters, 27 November), surely it could happen at the end of any year, since a decade is just the measure of 10 years and does not have to end in a year that ends in a nine or zero.
Ernest Howard
Driffield, East Yorkshire
• Good to have light relief in these troubling times, but devoting nearly a page (Report, 27 November) to a story about a restaurant in Japan losing its Michelin stars is taking this too far.
Barbara Brewis
Newcastle upon Tyne
• Michael Gove has said of Stormzy, who is supporting Jeremy Corbyn: “He is a far, far better rapper than he is a political analyst” (Report, 27 November). The problem is, the same is true of Gove.
Graham Head
London
• Before being made public, shouldn’t all political statements undergo a VAR (vacuous asinine rhetoric) check?
Philip K Maini
Oxford
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