As someone who went to the same school as Glenda Jackson – West Kirby grammar school for girls – and counted one of her sisters as a classmate, I have to take issue with the claim in your obituary (15 June) that she grew up in poverty. Both her parents were working and the family lived in a decent house in a pleasant coastal village. She was, rather, what could be described as a member of the respectable working class.
Alex Percy
Easton, Hampshire
• I won’t be the only citizen of Edinburgh (and elsewhere in Scotland) who is a tenement dweller to take exception to the quick crossword clue “Run-down building divided into flats”, with “tenement” as the answer (17 June). Tenemental living is perfectly normal in Scotland and ranges from the very grand to the more prosaic, but run-down is not some defining characteristic.
Iain Black
Edinburgh
• I fear that the European bee-eaters have made a wasted trip to the UK from their usual territory around the Mediterranean (Report, 15 June): there are no bees in our garden this year, or moths, or even flies. There was a time when flying insects swarmed around the light outside our back door, but no more.
Michael Heaton
Warminster, Wiltshire
• Writing about the Saudi takeover of golf (13 June), Jonathan Liew asks: “Reckon your favourite sport would put up any more of a fight?” As a keen player, now several years retired (handicap 1½), I can proudly and safely say: “Saudis, hands off! Croquet will not be nobbled.”
Mark Miller
Kendal, Cumbria
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