Perhaps you expect us to know that “French painter Vigée le Brun” is Louise Élisabeth Vigée le Brun (Rare appearance for portrait of Emma Hamilton, 24 October). The artist’s gender is crucial to this painting’s many observational subtleties and thematic ironies, not least because here a celebrated woman artist (uncommon, to put it mildly, in 1790), in depicting a woman who famously made a career out of presenting herself in “attitudes” for the male gaze (here “Lady Hamilton as Ariadne”), shows us – wittily but not bitchily – how this sitter also confronts the gifted appraising eye of another woman.
John MacInerney
London
• One of my grandchildren went to the Globe with school, no doubt to enjoy “the conditions within which Shakespeare and his contemporaries worked” (Letters, 27 October). Her mother asked what she thought of the performance. “It rained,” said the child. “Well…?” from her parent. “No fucking roof,” was the reply.
Christine Hawkes
Cambridge
• Side effects: acne, depression and increased libido (Male contraceptive jab effective in trials, 28 October). Have they finally stumbled on the elixir of eternal youth?
Jean Glasberg
Cambridge
• Katy Guest (The Week in Books, Review, 29 October) reports that David Cameron has sold his memoirs for book publication, but is still in need of a title. Could I suggest Laugh Out Loud?
John Pawsey
Milton Keynes
• Could I suggest Making a Pig’s Ear out of a Silk Purse.
Dave Crook
Birmingham
• My GPs’ surgery now refuses to accept magazines on the grounds of “health and safety” (Letters, 28 October). I have managed to sneak a few in, though.
Rosalind Clayton
York
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
