I thoroughly enjoyed Jeanette Winterson’s take on Orlando (Review, 1 September). But I do have to question the claim that Virginia Woolf only called it a biography as a “direct hit at her father … the Victorian patriarch”. Woolf was fascinated with biographies and the role of the biographer. She loved women’s life writing. She wrote to Vita Sackville-West about Orlando: “it sprung upon me how I could revolutionise biography in a night.” To Woolf, Orlando was not “just” a novel. It resists simple categorisation – just like its eponymous hero.
Alice Bloom
Oxford
• Rafael Behr (Opinion, 4 September) claims that Jeremy Corbyn’s general election performance was “impressive”. He lost by 56 seats to one of the worst Tory PMs in modern times. I rest my case.
John Richards
Oxford
• The juxtaposition of two headlines on your front page (4 September), the one concerning the connection between unhealthy lifestyles and early death, and the other concerning “fatphobia”, is simply beyond satire.
Dr Brigid Purcell
Norwich
• Richard Bourne (Letters, 4 September) reminds us that Cecil King once stated that “Subs make a paper”. I turn the page and see at the bottom of page 9 a reminder that “Caption goes here caption goes here caption goes here”.
Brian Harrison
Bushey, Hertfordshire
• The shocking use of isolation booths as a punishment in some academy trusts (Report, 3 September) is surely a form of torture and a violation of human rights.
Sarah Carter
Canterbury
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