I have occasionally contributed to your “Other lives” obituaries column and I am a friend of Kenneth Ball, whose cri de cœur you published last week (27 May). Ken, if I live long enough, it would be an honour for me to compose a tribute to you, but we hope not just yet!
Anders Ditlev Clausager (age 71)
Birmingham
• Fiona Collins (Letters, 28 May) offers to have a go at my obituary. How will I know that she will include my marmalade-making and doesn’t alter it after the event? I might just settle for inclusion in your Birthdays column – mine is on 11 August.
Kenneth Ball (age 91)
Ditchling, East Sussex
• If there are 1.1 billion smokers in the world and smoking killed nearly 8 million of them in 2019 (Number of smokers has reached all-time high of 1.1 billion, study finds, 27 May), can I point out that that is 0.73%. Why are they still going on about this? Couldn’t we have some clarity here? I am still smoking. Love life.
David Hockney
La Grande Cour, Normandy, France
• I see that Boris Johnson has announced his latest vanity project, a new royal yacht to be used as a floating trade mission (Boris Johnson plans to sink £200m into new ship of state, 31 May). Will its captain command it from a garden bridge?
David PJ Smith
Dunning, Perthshire
• It is not only lager drinkers who are given short shrift in the Albion, Chester (Letters, 26 May). Another sign reads “All our customers give us joy when they arrive … and some when they leave”.
John Creswick
Chester
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
