A happy accident, positive discrimination or a true reflection of gender bias at the Guardian? All the letters (4 June) were written by women.
Carolyn Kirton
Aberdeen
• I am looking forward to the day when I don’t notice that all your published letters are from women, but well done anyway. No female poet, though.
Ruth Eversley
Paulton, Somerset
• The difficulty of predicting life expectancy (How do you work out how long someone has to live, G2, 3 June) is not a new phenomenon. When my grandfather volunteered for the first world war he was turned down. He was told he had a heart condition and wouldn’t live long. Fortunately for him, and for me, this was not the case. We enjoyed many years together until he died in 1972 aged 97.
Bob George
Tiverton, Devon
• John Filsak wonders when a quotation became a quote, or an invitation an invite (Letters, 3 June). The examples given in the Oxford English Dictionary suggest before 1885 for the former and before 1659 for the latter.
Bob Davenport
London
• Since when did anyone in the UK helm theatrical productions (Donmar to stage revival of Liaisons Dangereuses, 3 June)?
Susan Miller
Wearhead, County Durham
• I’ve roared with laughter and rage with Steve Bell, but the stillness and sadness conveyed in the watercolour for Charles Kennedy (3 June) reduced me to tears. A quiet masterpiece.
Jonathan Stanley
Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria
• As a West Saxon, all I can say to Jane Maguire’s claims (Letters, 4 June) for the value of Latin is, “fleard”.
Robert Craig
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
