My science fiction paperbacks were treasured as much for their imaginative cover art as for the words inside (The hill I will die on: Heavy, awkward and incredibly expensive – we don’t need hardback books, 6 May). Reading science fiction in hardback just feels wrong. I miss the lurid covers, smudgy print and acidic paper that marked it out as a subversive genre.
Tony Durham
Brighton
Stalking horses
Further to recent references to stalking horses, I am much cheered by recalling a radio commentator many years ago who declared that the then dissidents were waiting in the wings for a stalking horse to test the water with.
Helen Cooper
Cambridge
Putin’s Victory Day parade
History repeats itself with Putin’s scaled-back Victory Day parade (Report, 10 May). The appointment of Hitler as chancellor was marked every year by a torchlight parade in Berlin, until it was cancelled in 1940 because it was thought that the RAF might drop bombs on it.
William Ward
London
Standing room only
So, when Kip Williams first listened to the opera Angel’s Bone, he nearly fell off his chair (11 May). Sadly, it’s an experience that those of us in the audience for his production at Aviva Studios won’t be able to share: nearly 50 quid a ticket and it’s all standing.
Kerry Jones
Manchester
Middle-aged at 60
Many, many years ago, I received a birthday card from my brother. “Now you are 60 will you finally accept you are middle-aged?” it said on the front. “So how many 120 year-olds do you know?” it added inside (Letters, 11 May).
Denis Beaumont
Wombourne, Staffordshire
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