There’s something about lockdown that takes us back to teenage years. Perhaps it’s the restricted movement, the unexpressed passion, dreams of future parties or fear for parents that makes the cognitive link to a former stage of life. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is right (Writers like Elena Ferrante are putting the pain of teenage girls centre stage, 14 May), reading other rites of passage might help heal and reveal memories of our own. We must write about our GCSEs and A-levels for those who will now have a completely different experience.
Rev Ryan Service
Walsall, West Midlands
• So, the government undertook “full and proper due diligence” when awarding the contract to Movianto to run its PPE stockpile (Drivers tell of chaos at UK’s privately run PPE stockpile, 14 May)? Is this the government that awarded a ferry contract to a company with no ships?
John Crawshaw
Wakefield, West Yorkshire
• My dad always put a pop sock or the cut-off legs from Mum’s old tights (Letters, 14 May) on to the downpipe into the water butt to catch debris from the gutter. This detritus was then put on the compost heap. We are still doing this on our three water butts many years later.
Anna Griffiths
Barnet, London
• Now is the time to reveal that my husband stuffs my tights with onions in the autumn. Fortunately, I’m not wearing them at the time.
Jane Taylor
Lichfield, Staffordshire
• I’m not at all surprised by the decision of the Académie Française (‘La Covid’: coronavirus acronym is feminine, Académie Française says, 13 May). It all goes back to Eve.
Maggie Rich
Ampthill, Bedfordshire
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