It’s not grim up north in Sweden

The Sara Cultural Centre and the Wood Hotel in Skellefteå, Sweden, one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world. Photograph: Jonas Westling

As the editor of the only English-language section of a Swedish newspaper, I get a little fed up of the canard that Sweden endures six months of darkness every year.

Imogen West-Knights implies that this is the case in her article (After a painful breakup, I dreaded returning to Sweden. Then came a friend’s quiet act of kindness, 28 December), by saying: “The problem is the dark. Sweden is a beautiful country but you wouldn’t know it for half the year.”