As an Englishman resident in Scotland for more than 50 years, I have never felt the slightest “shame … reserved for those who try to spend Scottish notes south of the border” (Time to cash in, G2, 18 January). I have, however, on two occasions, handed over a Royal Bank of Scotland £1 note in England and been offered change for a fiver.
Sebastian Robinson
Glasgow
• The passing of Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the former England women’s cricket captain, (Report, 19 January) reminds me of her wonderful reply when asked if women wore protective boxes, the same as male cricketers do. Yes, she said, but we call them man-hole covers.
Chris Grant
Harold Wood, Essex
• My friend Fraser, struggling with sleeplessness, found the collected poems of Hull-born Stevie Smith on our bookshelves. He discovered her extraordinary prescience: “Beware the man whose mouth is small / For he’ll give nothing and take all.” Could this just be the man who has been far out all his life, raving and clowning (The Trump effect, 19 January)?
Annie Clouston
Barnard Castle, County Durham
• Vocal mannerisms are nothing new (Letters, 17 January). Most Anglo-Saxon poems begin “Hwaet”, a word best translated as “Please settle down and be quiet, I am about to speak”.
Henry Malt
Bythorn, Cambridgeshire
• A staple in our house on Weetabix in the 1950s (Letters, 16 January) was margarine (butter wasn’t an option) and golden syrup. It was horrible.
Pauline Wilson
Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire
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