Don't dismiss Harold Wilson's legacy of liberalisation | Letters by Letters

Nicholas de Jongh is, to say the least, uncharitable in his dismissal of Harold Wilson's reputation as a liberal reformer on two issues close to Mr de Jongh's heart (Letters, 14 March).On th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:52pm on March 15, 2016☆⚑

Harold Wilson was no liberalising reformer | Letters by Letters

Anne Perkins paints a misleading picture of Harold Wilson when describing him as the PM who presided over great liberalising reforms that paved the way for modest decriminalisation of homose…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 4:22pm on March 13, 2016☆⚑

Privilege, not fashion, is the reason for posh actor posse | Letters by Letters

I just love these stories from actors who went to public school denying that it helped them in any way to get a job (Working-class actors don't land the best roles because 'it's fashionable …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:01pm on March 1, 2016☆⚑

Ice-cool appearance by Alan Rickman at the Almeida bar | Letters by Letters

In 1995 I left at the reception desk of the West Yorkshire Playhouse a copy of our son Nat's poems, The Mountain Man, collected by my husband on Nat's death at 20 in 1992, in the hope that A…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 1:54pm on January 20, 2016☆⚑

When Alan Rickman was a star at the bar | Letters by Letters

My wife and I went to the Almeida Theatre in Islington several years ago. Alan Rickman was in the audience (Obituary, 14 January). At the interval we went to the bar. Rickman walked in and t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:04pm on January 15, 2016☆⚑

Short shrift for curbs on Labour donations | Letters by Letters

Government moves to reduce Short money and to make it harder for trade union members to give subscriptions to the Labour party are blatant gerrymandering (Labour fears £6m funding cris…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:02pm on January 12, 2016☆⚑

Imaginative approach to Shakespeare works | Letters from Michael Holroyd, Davie Laing, Francis O'Neill and Christine Hillier by Letters

The Guardian suggests that Shakespeare should have one of his less well-known plays produced at Stratford-upon-Avon during this 400th anniversary (This year, more than ever, the play's the t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 4:06pm on January 3, 2016☆⚑

Cymbeline, the First Folio and a spidery hand | Letters by Letters

Rowland Wymer (Letters, 18 December) refers to original sources which would logically lead to Innogen's protagonist being called Giacomo. Simon Forman, the other source for "misspelling" of …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 1:07pm on December 23, 2015☆⚑

Metropolitan cultural mafia in concert once more | Letters by Letters

The proposed £278m concert hall (Report, 17 December) is a prima facie case of the metropolitan cultural mafia at work. The problem with the arts in England is there is no concrete pol…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 2:09pm on December 18, 2015☆⚑

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's not so pretty origins by Letters

Your review of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (18 December) reminded me of how Ian Fleming came up with the name. Soldiers in the Far East had to ask for a permission slip, a chitty, to leave …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:51pm on December 18, 2015☆⚑

Much ado about a possible misprint | Letters by Letters

The argument that "Imogen" in Shakespeare's Cymbeline is a misprint for "Innogen" does not depend solely on Simon Forman's account of a contemporary performance (Letters, 16 December). Innog…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 2:40pm on December 17, 2015☆⚑

Imogen beats Innogen when it comes to Shakespeare's Cymbeline | Letters by Letters

In her review of Cymbeline (12 December), Lyn Gardner refers to the heroine as Innogen, and states that the more common use of Imogen is a misspelling. This theory is based on a 1611 diary e…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:56pm on December 15, 2015☆⚑

Get McKinty " he's up there with Elmore | Letters by Letters

I am sorry to see that your roundup of the year's best thrillers (Review, 5 December) makes no mention of Adrian McKinty, whose intelligent, razor sharp thrillers star a deeply flawed Royal …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:05pm on December 6, 2015☆⚑

Smuggled delights of The L-Shaped Room | Letters by Letters

Lynne Reid Banks (Letters, 30 November) seems to have forgotten that an adult view of what 12-year-olds should or should not read makes absolutely no difference at all: her own compassionate…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:34pm on December 3, 2015☆⚑

How Waterstones thrives without the sound of muzak | Letters by Letters

Your article about the extraordinary turnaround in the fortunes of Waterstones (21 November) omits to mention another reason why so many of us have returned to shop in the store. Soon after …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:36pm on November 23, 2015☆⚑

The play's still the thing, even on the big screen | Letters by Letters

I was horrified by the inference from Jennifer Gale (Letters, 18 November) that cinematic presentations of live plays include close-ups. Why on earth can't the whole play be seen in the roun…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:24pm on November 19, 2015☆⚑

Win-win tactic for befuddling pollsters | Letters by Letters

"I don't get people wanting to watch live theatre beamed into a cinema," says Peter Bradshaw (Another Fiennes mess, My Week, 14 November). And so, Peter, we can assume that you, say, live in…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:08pm on November 16, 2015☆⚑

Unity gave strength to Warren Mitchell | Letters from Harry Landis and Jon Green by Letters

Philip Purser, in his obituary of Warren Mitchell (16 November), surprisingly made no mention of Unity Theatre as a formative experience. Mitchell, along with other household names like Alfi…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:08pm on November 16, 2015☆⚑

Bayko? What about Arkitex office blocks? | Letters by Letters

Like Ros Slowley (Letters, 10 November) I still have my Bayko but I remember Arkitex, a toy even more akin to Arckit. It was made by Triang and consisted of bases, beams and panels from whic…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:15pm on November 10, 2015☆⚑

Run-of-the-mill notice that the Irish mightn't mind | Letters by Letters

I applaud Ian McKellen's exhortations for more plays to be broadcast on television (Report, 23 October). Judging by the popularity of the live (and repeat) screenings from the National Theat…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:46pm on October 26, 2015☆⚑

Angela Lansbury: a dame with the Commons touch | Letters by Letters

Angela Lansbury, to whom you pay deserved tribute (Lithe spirit, 16 October), came to lunch with me at the House of Commons last year during her West End run in Blithe Spirit, met the Speake…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 2:26pm on October 16, 2015☆⚑

For the Sky Blues, mediocrity is the limit | Letters by Letters

As a widow, I would point out the tremendous advantage Queen Elizabeth II has had over Victoria in still having a husband thanks to medical advances. As a socialist, I cannot understand why …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 2:58pm on September 10, 2015☆⚑

Christopher Eccleston is right " there is a dramatic need for acting diversity | Letters by Letters

Christopher Eccleston's assertion that the "stage door is shut to poor children" (Report, 21 August) is in some ways correct. There are often significant obstacles faced by young people who …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 2:34pm on August 25, 2015☆⚑

Why Hamlet's new order was not to be | Letters by Letters

I had a friend who collected weird productions of Hamlet. They included Hamlet on a plank (suspended eight feet above the action); Hamlet on roller skates; and, my favourite, a production th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 2:42pm on August 20, 2015☆⚑

Bernard Ingham so wrong on The Rite | Letters by Letters

In proudly asserting his cloth-eared philistinism, Bernard Ingham exhibits a very British trait but seems a little confused (Letters, 6 August). The Rite of Spring, which he claims to have "…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 3:19pm on August 6, 2015☆⚑