“We need parenting classes for girls and – crucially – boys,” writes Alice O’Keeffe (Journal, 6 February). Be careful what you wish for. Once you have parenting classes you encourage ideas of the “right way” to look after babies. There are many right ways, and it may be hard, but at the moment we have the freedom to learn them for ourselves. The best education would be for secondary-school children and expectant mothers to visit new mothers to become familiar with what it’s really like.
Naomi Stadlen
Author of What Mothers Learn – Without Being Taught (out in April)
• The “National Theatre” adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels (G2, 6 February) is actually a transfer from, and a co-production with, the Rose theatre in Kingston. The Rose, a theatre producing exciting and imaginative work, receives no Arts Council funding and needs all the publicity and recognition it can get.
Simon Higman
Kingston, London
• Inspired by the success of Bait, made on 16mm black-and-white film, I’m planning a recording of Schubert’s The Trout on an old spinet, using authentic wax cylinders. It should be a wow with the cognoscenti.
J Stuart Yerrell
Budleigh Salterton, Devon
• Sorry to be picky, but Lancashire hotpot and anything cooked in a tagine are not stews (10 favourite recipes, No 5, 8 February). A stew is simmered, not cooked in the oven.
Jennifer Rees
Cardiff
• Good idea to call him “the impeached Donald Trump” (Letters, 10 February). But to save us all time, may I suggest we refer to Impotus?
Ellie Sedgwick
Westhall, Suffolk
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