As a psychotherapist, I often work with couples, one of whom has received a message out of the blue from an old flame (Old friends more grateful to receive a message than we expect, study finds, 11 July. Their reasons for entering therapy often centre around the message, jealousy on one half, doubts on the other, or a yearning to recapture past youthful feelings. Trust me, a message out of the blue is definitely not a good idea for some.
Pete Lavender
Woodthorpe, Nottinghamshire
• So a new study finds a clear link between hunger and anger (Report, 6 July). I could have saved the researchers the bother. At school in the 1960s we were taught that the French Revolution started in part because the people were starving, “and when you’re hungry you get angry”.
Barbara Brewis
Burnopfield, County Durham
• I liked the explanation of how shingle on a beach is sorted by size (Letters, 10 July). The same effect occurs in a box of muesli when the raisins and nuts find their way to the top. Surely this can’t be down to longshore drift?
Joanna Rimmer
Lambley, Northumberland
• Simon Townley, who suggests a wallchart of all Boris Johnson’s lies (Letters, 7 July), should be mindful that not everyone in our unequal society has spacious walls.
Roy Grimwood
Market Drayton, Shropshire
• Paul Brown’s interesting piece (Weatherwatch, 8 July) brought to mind Hilaire Belloc’s summary of the problem: “I am a sundial, and I make a botch / Of what is done much better by a watch.”
Jill Cramphorn
London
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