Our railways may struggle to run trains on time, but I can confirm that they have a record of reuniting toys with owners to be proud of (Boy, three, reunited with lost toy after Monkey’s 600-mile rail adventure, 23 November). Circa 1958, my bear fell between our departing train and the platform at Bristol Temple Meads station. Two days (and a mere 90 miles) later, it arrived safely, wrapped in a parcel, at Budleigh Salterton station, Devon, for the rest of the holiday.
John Hopkin
Birmingham
• Saying hello to strangers (Letters, 26 November) brings to mind a competition in the New Statesman in the 1960s asking: “What advice would you give to a foreigner visiting London for the first time?” It was won by the cartoonist Gerard Hoffnung. The thrust of his advice was: “On boarding a London Underground train, it is customary to shake hands with all those already in the carriage.” I’ve always relished the image of the fear and consternation arising.
Robert Parkhill
London
• Polly Toynbee is right about the importance of the arts in schools (Too many pupils miss lessons, says Ofsted, and that’s right. Call it the Michael Gove effect, 28 November). Had I not been in the school orchestra, choir and drama society while I was at St Anselm’s college, Birkenhead, I wonder whether I would still be singing in local choirs, playing with a band and appearing as the villain in our village panto 60 years later.
Stephen Percy
Winchester
• Alumni of The Stationers’ Company’s school are never in any doubt about the correct positioning of apostrophes (Letters, 27 November).
John Leeming
London
• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and on our Saturday letters spread in the print edition.
