Your list of Channel 4’s 40 best shows (2 November) describes A Very British Coup as “Alan Plater’s conspiracy thriller”. While it is true that Alan Plater wrote a brilliant script, the television series was based on a novel I published in 1982, six years earlier.
Chris Mullin
Callaly, Northumberland
• It is a good idea not to buy things you don’t really need just to get points on your loyalty card (Adrian Chiles, 3 November), but some supermarkets’ cards are worth keeping. For example, with Tesco and Sainsbury’s you can donate your points or vouchers to charity, so you are doing your bit without really noticing.
Alison Chapman
Aberdour, Fife
• There must be thousands of alluring images of Paul Newman available, so there was no need for you to glamorise smoking by choosing one of him with a cigarette between his lips (‘How I became a sexual creature’ – Paul Newman reveals all in newly discovered memoir, 31 October).
Margaret Pelling
Oxford
• John van Someren, who couldn’t find “legilium” in any dictionary (Letters, 28 October), will be interested to hear that the word appeared in Wiktionary two days after his letter was published.
Geoff Walmsley
Wirral, Merseyside
• Was the attire of the UN secretary general, António Guterres, mentioned because it was “tattered”, because it was “green” or because it was a “cardigan” (How UN secretary general became an outspoken voice for climate action, 4 November)?
Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
