I am delighted, on my 90th birthday, 14 June, to thank Tom Mahoney (Letters, 13 June) for reminding me of Wordsworth’s words “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven”. This expressed my feelings in 1945 as I listened alone to the radio, throughout the day, to the totally unexpected election results. I had been too young to have voted – the voting age was then 21. Last Friday bore some resemblance in feeling, though somewhat diluted by the failure of Labour to actually win, and obviously by regret that the second part of that quotation no longer applied.
Ailsa Land
Totnes, Devon
• To go back to basics, what does Brexit mean? No one seems to know. Is it today’s version of the 19th-century Schleswig-Holstein question? In the words of Lord Palmerston: “Only three people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business, the Prince Consort, who is dead, a German professor, who has gone mad, and I, who have forgotten all about it.”
David Moore
Chesterfield
• The Brexit secretary, David Davies, insists no deal is better than a bad deal. Does the same apply to the Conservative party’s negotiations with the DUP?
Harold Immanuel
London
• Will prime minister’s questions now be known as Orange Wednesdays?
Dr Martin Spence
Cornerstone University, Michigan, USA
• Laurie Penny (In science fiction, the future is feminist, 14 June) left out A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski, and CJ Cherryh, who has many excellent strands, including the Morgaine chronicles, the Chanur novels, and the Foreigner series.
Henrietta Cubitt
Cambridge
• Your Berliner format is ideal for lining the ark where our hens sleep – no other format fits. They’re going to be very upset (Guardian and Observer announce plan to relaunch in tabloid format, 14 June).
Judith McBrien
Saltash, Cornwall
