Anyone else rereading EM Forster’s amazingly prescient short story The Machine Stops? He writes of a universe where people live in cells connected to computers which provide access to food, medical needs, entertainment, socialisation etc. The population is described as having pasty faces and white blobby legs atrophied from lack of use. Sound familiar?
Ruth Lewis
Potters Bar, Hertfordshire
• John Crace said he couldn’t get past page 4 of The Mirror and the Light (Another tricky week for my mental health but a saucepan hat helped, 10 April). I wonder how many people have actually finished it? I have, so feel qualified to speculate – could it be that the gushing of the critics is akin to that of the dutiful citizens in The Emperor’s New Clothes?
Ursula Hutchinson
Newport, Isle of Wight
• I’ve been told three times that I’m “extremely vulnerable”; once by my GP, once by DoH letter and once by text. Anyone who hasn’t been told is welcome to one of mine (UK government ‘giving incorrect information on self-isolation’, say GPs, 12 April). Light refreshment in a brewery anyone?
Lyn Dade
Twickenham, London
• Ian Grieve, in exile in West Sussex (Letters, 14 April), can find solace in the Southwick Ship Canal, an easy bike ride from Steyning, and plan a visit to the exquisite Chichester Canal. And join the campaign to restore the Wey & Arun.
Nicholas Lawrence
Radley, Oxfordshire
• A heartfelt thanks to Ian Grieve for describing 73-year-old Donald Trump as being “middle-aged”. Just the tonic I need when rapidly approaching my 74th birthday in these troubling times.
Harvey Sanders
London
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