Readers have written in response to recent Guardian articles, sharing personal experiences and opinions on topics ranging from school admission costs to wartime cooking and sensory education.
School premium debate
Dr Anthony Isaacs from London challenges the implication of a recent report that parents are willing to pay a premium on house prices to secure entry to top state schools. The article in question (UK houses near top state secondary schools cost £40,000 more, research reveals, 1 September) cited Henrietta Barnett as an example, but Dr Isaacs argues this is misleading.
Henrietta Barnett, a highly selective grammar school with academy status for girls in Hampstead Garden Suburb, draws students from a wide area far beyond the NW11 postcode. According to Dr Isaacs, the real premium is paid by parents who can afford intensive private tutoring, which they hope will improve their daughters' chances of admission.
Wartime recipes and rationing
Dr Allan Dodds from Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, recalls his mother's "winter eggs" during the war, responding to an article about cooking in Spain during hunger years (No eggs, no potatoes but 'a lot of imagination': how Spain cooked in war's hunger years, 2 August). He describes how a plain-flour batter dropped into a frying pan produced egg-shaped pancakes, which were delicious when fried in the fat from a single rasher of rationed bacon.
Smell education and party tea
Dr Joseph T Nicholson from Balerno, Edinburgh, remembers a chemistry lecturer in the 1960s who advised students to "acquire a smell library" to help identify organic compounds, referencing a piece on children needing education in sniffing aromas (Smelling test: children need education in sniffing aromas, scientist says, 31 August).
Gillian Warson from Bicester, Oxfordshire, responds to a column on the term 'picky bits' (The hill I will die on: No self-respecting adult should use the term 'picky bits', 31 August), saying that in her house they call it "party tea."
Nominative determinism and final thoughts
Dave Bicker from Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, expresses weariness with "petty arguments about nominative determinism" (Letters, 2 September). Alison Boon from London concludes the correspondence by stating her letter "will do us all a favour."
The Guardian invites readers to submit letters on any article for consideration in the letters section.
