Thanks for the article on childhood comfort objects (‘I love him so much I could cry’: adults who have cuddly toys, 19 November). My mother’s sailor doll is with me still. Bought during a voyage to India in 1936 when she was about nine (a trip when she also contracted polio), it sat on her dressing table for 70 years, moving from house to house. Battered and faded, silently observing her ageing, it was a constant presence in her often unsettled life. Looking at him and understanding why he mattered means I could cry too.
Charlotte Jones
Compton Dundon, Somerset
My sisters, Susan Hughes and Jane Vooght, and I were pleased to see Prof Keith Hayward’s reference to the “brilliant wing design” of the Airbus (Letters, 17 November). The team at BAE Hatfield that developed the design was led by our late father, John Macadam. He would have been delighted to see his good work recognised in the pages of his preferred newspaper.
John Alexander Macadam
Watford, Hertfordshire
Rice pudding requires just two ingredients – rice and a milky liquid(Comfort and joy: the welcome resurgence of rice pudding, 18 November). Coconut milk is good, but any milk will do, mixed with water. Half an hour on a low oven (not two hours as in your recipe). Keep it simple, keep it cheap.
Carol Granere
Evie, Orkney
The satirical content of Guardian letters has always been a joy to me, but the hilarious one (Letters, 18 November) detailing a reader’s recipe for beans on toast with added ingredients including “a drizzle of a homemade infusion of chilli, garlic and rosemary in olive oil” will surely never be beaten.
Stephen Thomas
Seaford, East Sussex