As an English teacher in a comprehensive school 40 years ago, I would trawl the Guardian sports pages for synonyms and metaphors to use in class. It was always a fruitful search, but what rich pickings I would have had from Barney Ronay’s excellent article on Ben Stokes (Ben Stokes finds right Test vibes with blend of craft and aggression, 26 August). Guardian writing is truly the best.
Pamela Devonald
Louth, Lincolnshire
• Peter Purves is rightly concerned (Rise of tubeless toilet paper a ‘complete catastrophe’, says Blue Peter star, 26 August). How on earth are we going to sow and transplant our leeks? Does everything our parents and grandparents taught us have to be flushed away despite having some residual usefulness?
Peter and Teresa Baddeley
Painswick, Gloucestershire
• Claire Stares (Country diary, 26 August) says soldier beetles are often known as “hogweed bonking beetles” due to their propensity for mating. For years my wife and I have called them “shaggers”.
Ken Green
Caerphilly
• I note that six out of the eight women you spoke to about the “coastal grandmother” fashion trend live in Brighton or Hove (Report, 26 August). What are they wearing in Bridlington, I wonder?
Toni Silver
Eastbourne, East Sussex
• You say the England cricketer Jimmy Anderson is “sailing into his fourth decade” (25 August). Aged 40, he is already into his fifth.
Phillip Khan-Panni
Naas, County Kildare, Ireland
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