In John Crace’s digested week (30 January), he says of the Costa book of the year award that “everyone accepts the judging of this one is … a complete lottery”. I know of nine people who wouldn’t accept it: me and my fellow judges. Unless I was out of the room when the winner was chosen randomly from a set of numbered balls, my recollection of the judges’ meeting last Tuesday is that we spent a lot of time discussing the merits of each of the five books before coming to a collective decision.
Martyn Bedford
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
• I found your advice to letter writers chilling (Open door, 25 January; Letters, 28 January). In a Paper so entranced by the authentic & the artizznal surely the Letter Page should be a haven of Free Speech? A truely original voice relishes the quirks of meaning which can be wrung out of words mis-spelt, mis-punctuated, & in your terms mis-applied. Could you not allow our mangled missives a moment in the Sun without the cold hand of the Style Guide squeezing us into the box marked “Guardian Letters”?
Sheila Reece
Nottingham
• My parents’ doctor friend said that the only exercise guaranteed to help you lose weight is to rotate your head slowly from side to side when offered second helpings of food (Study finds exercise has limited effect on weight, 29 January).
Andrew Hewitt
Wrington, Somerset
• Re our PM’s “bunch of migrants” jibe (Report, 28 January), perhaps he could invent some new collective nouns. May I suggest a “hope of migrants” or a “desperation of asylum seekers”?
Marion Self
Romford, Essex
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
