Well done on your appreciation of Blas Flor and the Paraguayan harp (In praise of…, 14 April) but what about the Edinburgh international harp festival, which has just finished? As one new to this event, I was bowled over by the virtuosity of the performers – Robin Huw Bowen from Wales, Laoise Kelly from Co Mayo and Scotland's Corrina Hewat, to name but a few. With compositions from Bach and Liszt to Turlough O'Carolan to Karen Tweed, the playing here too was "fast and furious", and the traditional music was far from being "a chore to listen to".
Forbes Browne
Dundee
• In the TV series Spiral (G2, 4 April), I was intrigued to see the juge d'instruction say the French justice system was "better" than in England or the US. According to the translation, this was because the accused "gets the best representation possible", whereas here the quality of legal representation is dependent on "class". An interesting point, either from the legal or translation point of view.
Paul Windley
Sudbury, Suffolk
• Let's not be mealy-mouthed here: we're talking gob-swapping (Gay couple inspire protest kiss-in at pub, 15 April). For my taste, doing it in public, whether gay or straight, lacks decorum and vouchsafes an unseemly self-absorption. Non-carnal bussing among familiars and familials is quite sufficient ostentation.
W Stephen Gilbert
Corsham, Wiltshire
• Some of the increase in life expectancy is due to a reduction in infant mortality (Letters, 14 April), but this is far from the whole story. Official UK statistics show that, for example, life expectancy for women aged 60 increased from 20.8 years in 1981 to 24.3 years in 2007.
Alan Slomson
Leeds
• I was astonished to read (Letters, 14 April) about Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond's appointment of the first African to the staff of Oxford University. Did she really employ a Cambridge man?
Dick Temple
Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire
• Day five of the G2 Kids page and still no sign of a dot-to-dot. I hope for one soon.
Judith Rose (age 42)
Cardiff