As Toby Wood (Letters, 10 July) notes, beard lovers – pogonophiles in the Greek – deserve recognition, and Polly Hudson’s hirsute solidarity is welcome. There is a note of caution in the UK heatwave. While in Algiers in April 1882, Karl Marx had his iconic beard shaved because the weather was too hot. Just now beard wearers and allies may love facial hair a little less.
Keith Flett
Organiser, Beard Liberation Front
• Whatever her views on the Parthenon statues (Liz Truss and hard-right group accused of scaremongering over Parthenon marbles, 11 July), Liz Truss is surely the most outstanding figure in British politics when it comes to lost marbles.
Mark Lewinski-Grende
Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire
