I have always enjoyed Lynda La Plante’s work on TV. I am even more impressed now that I realise that she has “learned Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene by heart” (The books of my life, 1 September). I have been working on that poem for almost 40 years and have never met anyone who has managed that.
Andrew Hadfield
Hove, East Sussex
• Rejoining the EU’s Horizon science research programme will be a boost for the country, the government tells us, as the UK will become part of a multinational enterprise with global reach (Report, 7 September). The irony of this, and the utter stupidity that has led us here, will be lost on no one.
Simon Bullivant
London
• One of the most worrying aspects of the education secretary’s overheard remarks while her mic was still on (Report, 5 September) was her reference to people who had “sat on their [plural] arse [singular]”.
Peter Evans
West Chiltington, West Sussex
• At last, a comment on the part of residential gardens in the plight of our endangered insect population (Editorial, 4 September). It’s time there were limits on the use of pesticides and plastic grass (an abomination), and a cultural change in the way we view and treat our gardens. They can be sanctuaries for people, plants, insects and animals.
Katharine Brown
Washington, Tyne and Wear
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