Peter Preston (Report, Obituary, 7 January) was editor of the Guardian during the period in which I regularly contributed reviews and articles on music. While deeply serious about most things, he encouraged individuality of style among the paper’s writers, even also welcoming mischief. He played an important role in enabling the paper to achieve international renown. A first-class editor.
Meirion Bowen
London
• My mother, a lifelong Guardian reader, once wrote to complain when you moved the quick crossword. Almost by return she received a handwritten card from Peter Preston apologising and informing her the person responsible had since been shot. He’ll be missed by readers as much as by family and colleagues.
Martin Long
Frome, Somerset
• It’s all very well for the Guardian to move to tabloid size (Letters, 4 January), but this will cause a major problem for our family. Each year we save the best centrefold Eyewitness pictures to use as Christmas wrapping paper. We’re going to have to cut back on the size of our gifts for sure.
Glynis Freeman
Bude, Cornwall
• In Broadclyst, Devon: Scratch Arse Lane and Slaparse Lane (Letters, 5 January)? Top or bottom of the list?
Mary Stiff
Broadclyst, Devon
• Following Keith Flett’s letter (6 January) about Peterloo and Saint Monday, readers might be intrigued to know that in France it was known as Saint Lundi and in Germany as Blaue Montag. It was even complained about by Benjamin Franklin in the US in 1768. Perhaps a variation today is Poets Day (piss off early tomorrow’s Saturday).
Susan Major
York
• If President Trump can follow the instructions for his daily comb-over (Fire and Fury fallout, 6 January), we may well be grossly underestimating his genius.
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Shropshire Union canal
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