Stretching my legs – by just over an inch

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/10/stretching-my-legs-by-just-over-an-inch

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Leg-lengthening history | Northern aunts | In the slow lane | Qatar World Cup boycott | Country diary praise

Your fascinating article on leg-lengthening (9 November) says the apparatus for this was first used in the UK in 1989. I had polio in 1957, which left me with one leg shorter than the other. It was stretched by just over an inch – with what sounds very like the apparatus you refer to – in the Nuffield orthopaedic centre in Oxford in 1963, when I was 10.Ian LewisHope Mansell, Herefordshire

When I was teaching in East Sussex, the school put on a production of James and the Giant Peach. “Who do we think should play the two aunts?” I asked staff in my Liverpool accent (Letters, 8 November). A puzzled (southern) teacher said: “There are no ants in James and the Giant Peach.”Sue LeylandHunmanby, North Yorkshire

Whenever I cross the Chirk aqueduct into Wales, I always cut my speed from a fast and furious 4mph to a leisurely 2mph (Letters, 9 November), which allows me to wallow in the joy of living under a devolved government, far, far away from Westminster.Ian GrieveGordon Bennett, Llangollen Canal

Re your report (Six out of 10 people in UK oppose Qatar hosting World Cup over anti-gay laws, 7 November), as a newspaper that takes human rights seriously, shouldn’t the Guardian boycott any reporting of the World Cup? Dr Pierre ChardaireNorwich

There was so much to enjoy in Lev Parikian’s country diary (10 November), but the image of a crow “rowing” across the sky was particularly inspired. Brilliant.Carolyn PeckWhitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset

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