I was interested to read Jim Perrin’s Country diary about Penrhyndeudraeth (13 October). In the 1980s I was a purchasing officer with the National Coal Board/British Coal and was responsible for the explosives contract. Nobel was the major supplier, and all its “permitted explosives for use underground” were made at Cooke’s Works. I suspect it was the decline of the coal industry rather than of local quarries that led to the closure of the factory. Good to know, though, that the site is now a thriving nature reserve.
Catherine Goundry
Upton, near Retford, Nottinghamshire
• How could Lonnie Holley and Sun Ra have been potential high school classmates (‘I’m a suspect – and I’ll be a suspect till I die’, G2, 5 October) when Sun Ra was 35 years his senior? Even with Sun Ra’s multiform efforts to mess with the laws of time and space, this seems highly unlikely.
Phil Goodland
Crowborough, East Sussex
• Your front-page photo (15 October) of Jeremy Hunt and his EU counterparts waving from the maze at Chevening evoked the great Stevie Smith poem Not Waving But Drowning – an impression confirmed by the latest grim news on the Brexit negotiations.
Janet Jones
Fownhope, Herefordshire
• I am a twin. I have three twin sisters. When my twin and I were 13 years old, our mother had a second set of twins. Our three brothers and parents refer to us as the big twins, and the younger ones as the little twins. We are all very happy with this (Letters, 11 and 15 October).
Margaret Huyton
Knutsford, Cheshire
• I enjoyed your glowing review of Porgy and Bess (15 October) and yet am shocked. In some 600 words, two stand out by their absence – Ira Gershwin. Ira’s words, with George’s music, through their humour, sadness and yearning, propel the story.
Stanley Clingman
London
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