Your correspondent is being rather harsh on Jim Perrin by criticising the use of the word meirwon rather than meirw (Letters, 17 January). Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, the University of Wales dictionary, gives both meirw and meirwon as acceptable words for “the dead” in the plural form. I see meirwon as more poetic, intended to imply that it refers to all the dead.
Ann Swindale
Skewen, Neath Port Talbot
• Jacinda Ardern resigns because she “no longer has enough in the tank” (Report, 19 January). How different from our own prime minister, who has been running on empty since he was appointed.
William Outhwaite
Bampton, Oxfordshire
• I had just been thinking that it had been a while since we’d heard news of the animals that inhabit Tim Dowling’s household. So his touching feature in the Saturday magazine (Four dogs, three cats, two snakes, a tortoise: what 30 years of pets have taught me about life, 14 January) was a real treat.
Jane Gregory
Emsworth, Hampshire
• As Tim Dowling is not the only person whose spouse has a secret childhood tortoise, I wonder if anybody could tell me if tortoises can swim or, if not, are there a range of buoyancy aids available to purchase?
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Llangollen canal
• Clever penguins (Scientists discover emperor penguin colony in Antarctica using satellite images, 20 January).
Paul Simpson
Southsea, Hampshire
