I and my husband have been joking since 1979 that we had a “sten party”, meaning we did not have hen or stag parties but went out to the pub together with a few friends the night before our wedding. I did not realise that the term had gone mainstream till I read your article (Nine ways to cut the cost of hen or stag dos and still have a ball, 13 May). Were we trendsetters?
Jane Lowe
Monton, Greater Manchester
Instead of spending “a week doing some care work shifts” to find out whether this work is “low-skilled” or not (Letters, 15 May), Yvette Cooper could just consult her husband, Ed Balls, who spent a couple of weeks in a care home doing just that for a BBC Two documentary a few years ago.
Marie Paterson
Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Crisps as part of a main meal is nothing new (‘Something a bit naughty’: British snackers fall for the posh crisp, 16 May). Fifty years ago, a New Zealand flatmate introduced me to an easy fish pie recipe that had crumbled crisps as topping on the mashed potatoes.
Jennifer Henley
London
According to Prof Nicholas Vincent, the Lowthers of Cumbria were an “evil aristocratic family” (Harvard’s unofficial copy of Magna Carta is actually an original, experts say, 15 May). Can we have a list of all the aristocracy, graded from good to bad?
Peter Gray
Chesterfield
A great follow-up to your article about the UK’s richest people (King Charles’s wealth swells to match Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty on UK rich list, 16 May) would be one on how much these rich people give to good causes.
Jeanette Hamilton
Buxton, Derbyshire
