The similarity between Dominic Cummings and the Doonesbury character Duke (Letters, 10 August) is a reminder that Garry Trudeau’s inspiration for the character was Raoul Duke in Hunter S Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a thinly disguised version of Thompson himself, who occasionally used the nom de plume Raoul Duke. Given that Cummings’ main purpose seems to be creating fear and loathing in Westminster, this seems appropriate.
Clive Sykes
London
• I always read Paul Evans’ contributions – precise and often lyrical – with huge pleasure. His celebration and lament for predated birds (Country diary, 8 August) was spot-on. But in contrasting Sir Philip Sidney’s “silly lives” with the swallows’ “community wisdom”, is he forgetting that silly in Sidney’s day (and right through to Milton’s) still kept its old meaning of innocent?
Christine Webb
Slough, Berkshire
• Thank you for the excellent obituary of Marcel Berlins (Journal, 8 August). We fondly remember that he started the quiz that is still running in the Weekend magazine. He has much to answer for in the Addison household over Saturday breakfast.
Clare Addison
Oxford
• Grace Dent (Weekend, 10 August) shouldn’t worry about feeling animals deserve as much grief as humans. The author of the Book of Ecclesiastes got there around 300BC. See chapter 3, verses 18-21. Very reassuring.
Elizabeth Forbes
Tisbury, Wiltshire
• Looking at the picture of Cologne (‘We don’t fly now – and it doesn’t cost the earth’, 10 August), it may not be the most ethical destination to travel to, with two coal-fired power stations on the horizon.
Saeed Malik
Southborough, Kent
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