Your article on the Jews of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki’s Jews: ‘We can’t let this be forgotten; if it’s forgotten, it will die’, 30 July) shines a welcome light on their history. However, it refers only to Sephardic Jews. When they arrived from Spain, an older Jewish community already existed: the Romaniote Jews. They had been there at least since Byzantine times, and small communities still exist across Greece. They, too, need to be remembered.
Jaspar David Utley
Havant, Hampshire
• “A Tory on a jolly” maybe (Great Continental Railway Journeys review, 29 July), but I got a lot of enjoyment from the fact that Michael Portillo chose to visit Salamanca in “yellow jacket, purple shirt and tomato trousers” – a walking approximation of the flag of the Spanish Republic, the cause his father had supported in the country’s civil war.
Tristan Wood
London
• Like the incomparable Lucy Mangan, I too was startled by Michael Portillo’s choice of clothing. But where did he get it? Though he materialised on several railway station platforms, he never appeared to have any luggage.
Michael J Walsh
London
• Joyce Blackledge’s grocer who had not heard of garlic (Letters, 28 July) reminded me of my first day in Liverpool, in 1970. I asked a local grocer what kinds of cheese they had. The answer: “Red and white.”
David Garner
Southport, Merseyside
• To kill two birds with one stone I’ve decided to combat my post-lockdown weight increase by wearing a large face mask at all times to hide my multiple chins.
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Llangollen canal
