Hollywood Aga

sir – In the late 1940s, Laurence Olivier’s breeches were dried out on my grandmother’s Aga (Letters, September 21), after he was unseated from his horse into a brook while insisting on doing his own riding stunt in a film he was starring in. Rosemary Coates

Southwick, Northamptonshire

sir – Some years ago, just before Christmas, I rescued a suicidal turkey that had attempted drowning in a pond on my smallholding. I transferred this near-dead, dripping-wet bundle of feathers to a pile of towels in front of the open door of the Aga, supervising it while writing my Christmas cards.

Not only did it recover, but it was also granted a full reprieve from being the tasty focus of Christmas lunch. Elizabeth Stanley

Topsham, Devon