It looks like Andrea Leadsom is unconcerned that her children’s children may never see a butterfly unless they climb a mountain (Leadsom’s views make her surprise choice for new role, 15 July), which she sees as a sensible approach to environment planning. Could Patrick Barkham (Wet summer is last straw in disastrous year for butterflies, 15 July) perhaps persuade the family to take part in the big butterfly count?
Helen Esplin
Coleford, Gloucestershire
• Perhaps I’m paranoiac, but I rather resented the implication that because I enjoy AE Housman, I must be a xenophobic Brexiteer (Housman Country: Into The Heart Of England by Peter Parker, reviewed by Blake Morrison, Review, 16 July). The bleakness below Housman’s sylvan surface has long been recognised and was concisely captured by Hugh Kingsmill’s parody of Housman’s verse which begins: “What still alive at twenty-two / A clean upstanding lad like you?”
David Edwards
St Helens, Merseyside
• The sparkling oratory of the current Mrs Trump (Melania Trump convention speech seems to plagiarise Michelle Obama, theguardian.com, 19 July) has whetted my appetite for her husband’s original “I have a dream” speech.
Ian Grieve
Steyning, West Sussex.
• David Butler writes re the Corby-shambles that only once since 1721 have we elected a PM with a beard (Letters, 19 July). Another letter writer was told that Marx and Trotsky are dead. But Keith Flett is alive and presumably writing to you as I type this.
Brian Smith
Berlin, Germany
• Your article (I gave up race when Decker fell, Zola Budd reveals, 19 July) highlights the forthcoming documentary, The Fall, about the ill-fated 1984 Olympics women’s 3,000m race. The accompanying picture shows athlete “175” and some mention should be made that this is of course Wendy Sly (née Smith), who in her first Olympics won the silver medal in that race.
Cathy Cross
London
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