In Alice O’Keefe’s profile of the poet Hollie McNish (‘I always attracted mums and midwives. Now I get poetry lovers,’ 17 June), I note that “She was educated at the local comprehensive, but went on to Cambridge University.” Surely the word should be “and”?
John Murphy
Carshalton, Surrey
• In his informative obituary of Helmut Kohl (17 June), Dan van der Vat writes: “He joined the Hitler Youth, like nearly all male contemporaries, including Pope Benedict XVI.” My understanding is that at the time membership of the Hitler Youth was compulsory.
Robert Nowell
New Barnet, Hertfordshire
• Like David Edwards (Letters, 13 June), one of the reasons I buy the Guardian is for the letters page, where readers regularly demonstrate that they are light years ahead of the politicians and, with a few notable exceptions, your columnists. Most of the latter have contributed to the climate of opinion that for two years has portrayed Jeremy Corbyn as an unelectable leader of a party that needed to move towards the centre to survive in the 21st century. The past week or so has shown them that under Corbyn Labour is a real, viable alternative to the state-shrinking zealots of the Tory party.
Dave Lawlan
Bristol
• I’m 64. Enough is enough. I’m joining Momentum.
Barbara Kelly
London
• I’m surprised that Bob Dylan’s apparent plagiarism is considered newsworthy (It’s alright ma, I’m only cheating, G2, 15 June). One of the features of Dylan’s output from the very beginning is his “borrowing” from other sources. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll and Only a Pawn in Their Game drew heavily from newspaper articles, With God on Our Side reworked Dominic Behan’s The Patriot Game, and Motorpschyo Nitemare was loosely based on Hitchcock’s Psycho. Dylan has described himself as a “thief of thoughts” but his gift is the ability to forge diamonds from this rough material.
Mike Pender
Cardiff
