Tomorrow, sadly, our village post office/newsagent is closing after being there longer than I care to remember. One of the reasons cited is obvious, “with the age of digital technology, sale of newspapers is slowing down”. Thankfully an “outside source” has been arranged to deliver. The Guardian faces many challenges ahead (Open door, 30 October), and while I embrace technology, I am an archetypal Guardian reader of 60 years, passionately supporting its values and traditions, and relishing the printed edition each day. I suspect I am not alone in this.
Jean Jackson
Seer Green, Buckinghamshire
• President Macron’s poetic reply to a schoolgirl’s verse letter (Report, 3 November) stands in an honourable tradition. In 1951 Clement Attlee found time during his last days in office to reply to 15-year-old Ann Glossop’s rhyming complaint at having to resit her school certificate, using the same verse form (but more strictly) to sympathise charmingly and refer the matter to his minister for education.
Rev Philip Welsh
London
• At the age of 73, I am conscious that, for the first time in my life, I have not seen a single wasp either outside or inside my home this year. Despite having a deep fear of wasps (often using my wife as a human shield) I find this experience both unnatural and quite worrying, particularly for future generations. The question in my mind is “who cares”?
Hugh McAteer
Stepps, North Lanarkshire
• Your report (2 November) about “fake news” being Collins Dictionary’s word of the year is itself fake news. The last time I looked, “fake news” was two words. As an esteemed world leader said: BAD.
Professor Philip Burnard
Cardiff
• So, The Rose was Shakespeare’s theatre (Report, 2 November). Did anyone think to tell Philip Henslowe and the Lord Admiral’s Men?
Kate Richards
Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire
• Does Brussels have an Ecuadorian embassy (European arrest warrant sought for Puigdemont, 3 November)?
Geoff Pogson
Gillingham, Dorset
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
