I’m glad we’re starting to look at historical figures through the lens of neurodivergence (Documentary explores whether JMW Turner may have been neurodivergent, 10 November). But why give JMW Turner the benefit of 21st-century advances in neuroscience and not afford the same courtesy to his mother, Mary, who was “believed to have had a psychiatric disorder and would fly into a dangerous temper”? This language could have come straight from the admission papers that got her committed to a mental asylum.
Jill Metcalfe
Bottens, Switzerland
• Delighted to learn from Claire Ratinon that our rewilded garden is full of volunteer plants, not weeds (Had a bad year? Embrace ‘volunteer crops’, your garden’s gift to you, 7 November). Like her, we have welcomed a surprise crop of squash and tomatoes, and a glut of raspberries, as well as animals.
Linda Morris
Southport, Merseyside
• With Frankie the flamingo having landed safely in Brittany (Frankie the missing flamingo ‘spotted’ 100 miles from Cornwall in Brittany, 10 November), will we now have to accept a large French wading bird under the “one in, one out” scheme?
Robin Jarvis
Bristol
• Jazz never went away – fans and players alike carry it around like a flickering candle (‘Young audiences are less scared of it’: why London jazz clubs are expanding and thriving against the odds, 10 November).
Alex Dickie
Edinburgh
• You can tell the Guardian’s letter writers are old (Letters, 10 November) because the young ones always have their age listed after their name.
Matt Grant (aged 53¾)
Perth, Australia
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
