I agree with Nell Frizzell (24 January) about the impenetrability of the self-assessment tax form and have had sleepless nights about it for months. But after reading about it in the Guardian (13 January), I bit the bullet and waited on the HMRC phone line until help arrived. It was so worth it. A divine man talked me through everything I didn’t understand and stayed on the line until I had completed it. Panic over! But what a well-kept secret this facility is.
Jude Anderson
Cardiff
Your obituary of the drummer Tony Oxley (28 December) linking his stubbornness to “his South Yorkshire origins”, reminds me of similar descriptions of Johnny Bull in Frank Richards’ Greyfriars stories. It seems unlikely that all denizens of those strange lands east of the Pennines are innately stubborn and blunt – though I believe they are invariably parsimonious.
Bill Bradbury
Bolton, Greater Manchester
One of the best things I’ve done on a dark January morning is to read of the former SAS member Mike Sadler and the medical journalist Caroline Richmond (Obituaries, 14 and 17 January). Surely a true hero and heroine.
Elaine Steane
Oxford
Re the cryptic crossword clue “Merit a couple of eggs from French waiter” (Letters, 24 January), surely one egg would have been un oeuf.
John Lydon
Leeds
