Recycling gifts | Gilbert and Sullivan’s Lord Mountararat | Northern culture | Welsh walks
“If the present isn’t to your taste you could … give it to someone else” (Hate that jumper? Here’s what to do with unwanted Christmas presents, 30 December). This was a favourite, and very annoying, habit of my over-economical, Scottish mother, who diligently recycled gifts even if she did like them herself. The practice is still known in our house as “Shuffle Katy”.
Kirsten Cubitt Thorley
Sheffield
• The answer to Timothy Kirkhope’s key questions about the House of Lords (Letters, 1 January) can be found in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, where Lord Mountararat tells us, “The House of Peers, throughout the war, did nothing in particular, and did it very well.”
Tom Uprichard
London
