On the morning of 9/11, my husband and I were the only visitors at the home of Robert Frost, high in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, where he returned from England as the first world war began (Editorial, 8 November). To be asked to sit in his chair and hold his writings was a privilege I will never forget. To look across at the mountains, feel the calm he must have felt, the “ordinary” belying the power of his poetry, is not lost today.
Jean Jackson
Seer Green, Buckinghamshire
• For the cost of the Covid contracts secured by Randox, the company Owen Paterson lobbied for, we could have settled our dues to Iran, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe might well be home now (Report, 5 November).
Marion Worth
Newport
• You say the sleep study (Sleep at 10pm linked to lower risk of heart disease, study finds, 9 November) took into account “age, sex, sleep irregularity” and other factors. Shouldn’t that be gender, rather than sex? Or am I missing something? I do sleep well!
Rev Trevor Smith
Plymouth
• Eider ducks (Country diary, 8 November) are also known in some circles as “Frankie Howerd ducks”. Listen to their conversations and it’s obvious why.
Dave Headey
Faringdon, Oxfordshire
• Re climate change songs (Letters, 4 November), Leonard Cohen’s The Future contains the classic line: “Take the only tree that’s left and stuff it up the hole in your culture.”
Reg Smith
Keswick, Cumbria
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