It’s good to talk, and to write letters too

‘I suspect a proportion of the ones he knows have lost a partner, and by necessity are members of the silent generation; it is just when they are in company that they talk the hind legs off a donkey,’ says Margaret Squires. Photograph: I Love Images/seniors/Alamy

Andrew Tucker claims “the silent generation” is a misnomer for those aged 75-plus, since the ones he knows talk (Letters, 19 June). I suspect a proportion of the ones he knows have lost a partner, and by necessity are members of the silent generation; it is just when they are in company that they talk the hind legs off a donkey. I haven’t yet started waylaying people in the street, but since my husband died last November, I haven’t been far off. I write to the Guardian instead.
Margaret Squires (aged 83)
St Andrews, Fife

• Driving through central London last Sunday, my satnav advised me to “turn left into Whitehall and then make a U-turn at Downing Street”. Was this a commentary on past actions or a forecast of government policy to come?
Alan Costar
Eltham, London