While Jugband Blues didn’t get into Alex Petridis’s top 10 Pink Floyd songs (Ranked!, 12 September), I was pleased to see it at No 11 in his top 20 list online. Petridis describes a Salvation Army band erupting into “free-form mayhem” as a counterpoint to Syd Barrett’s “dead-eyed voice”. My father, George Whittingham, and his lifelong friend, Maurice Cooper, were part of the ensemble responsible for that sonic mayhem. Not bad for someone who recently celebrated his 99th birthday, and for Maurice, who is 96. Perhaps it’s time for them to get the band back together?
Ian Whittingham
Golden Cross, East Sussex
• Giving way to other drivers is encouraged in New Zealand and Denmark (Letters, 14 September). In New Zealand, the signs say “Merge like a zip”, and in Denmark, the white line between a slip road and the main carriageway disappears, indicating that no one has right of way and you’re expected to be nice.
Deirdre Burrell
Mortimer, Berkshire
• An 1860 monument inscription says Dorothy Pentreath was “said to have been the last person who conversed in the ancient Cornish” (Cornish clung on as living language beyond Dolly Pentreath, says writer, 15 December). With whom did she converse?
Roger Daniels
Upper Langford, Somerset
• The most chilling words in your article on new nuclear reactors (15 September): the US and UK governments have promised to “fast track safety checks”.
Steve Vanstone
Wolverhampton
• Shouldn’t Reform UK be renamed Rejects UK?
Peter Gildener
York
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