Standing shots

SIR – The Italians stand for a quick coffee on their way to work (Letters, April 29) and few little coffee bars have any seats. Hence the “espresso”. Duncan Rayner

Sunningdale, Berkshire

Alien bluebells

SIR – I used to go on walks with the late Earl of Selborne, a keen environmentalist and ecologist. One morning, I heard John, normally the calmest of men, loudly haranguing someone in a garden. When I looked, it was empty. “Sorry to interrupt – anything the matter?” I asked.

“Wretched alien bluebells!” he raged. “Why can’t they grow non-scripta, not

hispanica (Letters, April 28)?”

Bryan Oates

London SW1