The smell of books is, indeed, evocative (How to judge a book by its odour, 8 April). However, teachers of a certain vintage will remember giving classes a worksheet that had been reproduced on a Banda machine. They would be faced with 25 students joyously putting the words of wisdom to their nose and sniffing the aroma in unison.
Steven Pollard
Pertenhall, Bedfordshire
• I have noticed that whenever any government department (or any other authority come to that) is criticised for poor behaviour (Most refugees sent to poorest parts of the UK, 10 April), its response is always written by someone in a parallel universe who maintains that the earth is flat and the moon is made of blue cheese.
Jerry Stuart
London
• At last you’re acknowledging some of the range of responses to fashion by larger women (Weekend, 8 April). Thank you, Jonatha Kottler, for exploring clothes shopping in stores. I rue the day when H&M gave up its Big is Beautiful range.
Gina Langford
Canterbury
• With reference to completing forms (Letters, 5 April), my wife was asked by her employer to submit her car registration number to qualify for a parking space. She wrote “no idea”, and was pleased to see her place in the car park had been marked “Reserved N01 DEA”.
Alan Sekers
London
• Tim Pigott-Smith’s early talent was already evident during the production of Hamlet at King Edward VI School in Stratford in 1963 (Obituary, 10 April). The theatre critic of the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald (on 27 December 1963) applauded his “subtle and splendidly prepared Claudius (I would like to see Mr Pigott-Smith’s Shylock one day)”.
Dr Hubert Zawadzki
(Hamlet’s father’s ghost in the same production), Abingdon, Oxfordshire
• When can we expect the Guardian to start attaching the label “hard-right” to policies like the bedroom tax, peddling arms to the Middle East and privatisation of the NHS?
Michael McLoughlin
London
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
