Northampton’s got the measure of things | Brief letters

Steve Bell | Pro malo | Northampton | Inheritance

The wonderful Steve Bell has hit the nail on the head again (Cartoons 5 and 6 September). Two more to go up on my kitchen wall. In my last house the utility room walls were covered in his cartoons. When I sold up, the buyers asked me to leave them in place because they enjoyed them so much.
Joan Green
Bourn, Cambridgeshire

• Clive Stafford Smith gets his Latin right with “pro bono”, meaning “for the good” (Letters, 6 September), but the opposite is not, as he thinks, “pro malum”. That would mean “Oh no! The evil!” What he was looking for was “pro malo” (not hard to guess, I think).
Michael Bulley
Chalon-sur-Saône, France

• Gavin Haynes claims that “Most towns beneath say, Northampton’s size, do not have attractions worthy of the name” (Is this really Bude’s best attraction?, 6 September). It may or may not be true, but we its denizens are proud to don this mantle. Wales, the standard unit for geographic area; Northampton the standard unit for civic-attraction-to-population ratio.
Alan Woodley
Northampton

• Our grown-up children could give Lucy Mangan a few tips on claiming the family spoils (G2, 6 September), although they would consider that she is leaving it rather late. When they were all under 10, a favourite rainy day occupation was to play “When you die”. Lists were made. Sadly, the grand piano and rather nice paintings were eschewed in favour of the most popular items, the dishwasher and the TV.
Janet Mansfield
Aspatria, Cumbria

• I wish Lucy Mangan’s parents many more years together, but when they die, please may I adopt her?
Lindy Hardcastle
Groby, Leicestershire

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