Gaby Hinsliff’s column on male bonds struck a chord (Male bonds develop one way, female friendships another. Should we stop trying to make men more like women?, 6 January). Despite essentially no interactions since we moved in 2021, working with my retired (male) neighbour to remove a shared overgrown ivy one afternoon last summer led to me knowing his grandchildren by name and we now say hello in the village. Occasionally he even stops for a chat. But that’s enough about that.
Nick Jolliffe
Boston Spa, West Yorkshire
• Re Isabella Stone’s letter (8 January) pointing out that Ashbourne is not in “the north of England”, when I met my husband, who comes from Ramsgate, he believed the north began at the Elephant and Castle. I come from Birmingham, which is in the West Midlands – not in the north, as his family insisted it was.
Jane Gregory
Emsworth, Hampshire
• In order to participate in this summer’s World Cup, all “freedom-loving” football nations should require all their matches to be rescheduled to take place in either Canada or Mexico.
Rob Brown
Bristol
• Re greetings (Letters, 7 January), I recall after moving to Aberdeen from central Scotland in 1974, when I went into a shop the greeting would be a curt “Now?”
Ian Arnott
Peterborough
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