Every year when the clocks moved forward, my father used to tell my brothers and I that we owed this to a relative, William Willett, who came up with the idea of “daylight saving” (Looking forward to an extra hour in bed on Sunday? Time to thank a farsighted builder from Kent, 25 October). Willett’s mother, Maria (née Box), was an older sister of my paternal great-grandmother, the splendidly named Affability – both being among the many children of a Southwark waterman. There is a memorial to Willett in Petts Wood, London, with a sundial permanently set to British summer time.
Julian Harber
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
• Paul Highfield (Letters, 26 October) should be aware that, like unhappy families, every seasonal affective disorder sufferer is sad in their own way. This one hates dark mornings with a vengeance – so much so that I have logged the sunrise/sunset times around the solstices and equinoxes for many years.
