Your article (Review, 26 October) says Posy Simmonds “has been delighting readers with her exquisitely drawn comic strips and novels since the 1970s, when she began to lampoon the Guardian-reading bourgeoisie in a long-running comic strip that grew into Mrs Weber’s Diary”. But before that, Simmonds drew Bear for Murdoch’s Sun, starting in 1969. Bear (a teddy) was the Philip Green of the nursery. You can still obtain a book of the cartoons secondhand.
Philippa Pigache
Cross in Hand, East Sussex
• I was very distressed to read the letter (30 October) from a claimant who earns less than £500 per month and will receive only £98 universal credit. My income from pensions is lower than the tax threshold, but I do have a secure home. I am ashamed and depressed to live in a country where people are denied sufficient income to buy food and pay their rent. Clearly, one half don’t know how the other half live, and don’t care.
Janette Ward
Tarrington, Herefordshire
• You report (27 November) that the village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire is up for sale. Surely this is a property the National Trust ought to be buying? Laxton is a unique example of rural history that shouldn’t be sold off to a wealthy individual in the manner of its previous feudal owners. The trust already owns Laycock in Wiltshire, so must have the experience to successfully manage Laxton on behalf of its residents and members.
Peter Sinclair
Barkway, Hertfordshire
• I was interested to read that the professor of surgical education at Imperial College is Roger Kneebone (Screen time ‘damages tactile skills student surgeons need’, 31 October). I wonder if he’s connected to Professor Thighbone.
Howard Ewing
London
• Like Sarah Miles (Letters, 30 October) since I’ve already got my Guardian, I pick up a free Telegraph at Waitrose. Rather awkwardly though I somehow manage to drop a second one on top of the Daily Mail pile.
Geraldine Blake
Worthing, West Sussex
• So Stephen King thinks the word “amazing” is “very tired” (Say what?, G2, 31 October). Awesome.
Stephen Hughes
Liverpool
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