Reflections on black US soldiers’ experiences in the UK

A group of black US marines taking a break during the battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific in March 1945. Graham Smith’s book looks at the experiences of black American soldiers who arrived in Britain during the second world war. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty

Re your report (9 July), Nevil Shute’s 1947 novel The Chequer Board dealt with the question of racism when US forces were over here during the second world war, and my 1987 book When Jim Crow met John Bull: Black American Soldiers in World War II Britain is a comprehensive look at this unique experience. Several TV documentaries followed it, and the BBC made a feature film.
Graham Smith
Shrewsbury, Shropshire

• What I find irritating about Andrea Jenkyns’ impolite gesture (Report, 11 July) is that it was a US-style single finger. Surely as a Conservative she should uphold the traditional British two fingers? Black Friday, trick or treat, proms – where will it all end?
Ian Anderson
Cambridge