This is the first time I heard the expression “relationship virgin” (Family, 28 October) and can say “ditto” to everything she wrote in the article. When the penny finally dropped that I was to remain independent, I made the most of it: I lived and worked abroad, travelled and got on with life. I am now 76, still independent and content. My friends say that some bloke has had a lucky escape. I think I agree with them.

Liz Rawcliffe

Preston, Lancashire

• You report (30 October) that the government deficit is forecast to reach £36bn. Coincidentally, the tax gap for 2016 – ie the difference between taxes due and taxes actually collected – was also £36bn. Yet the government is pressing on with its policy of closing local HMRC offices and reducing staff numbers, which seems to indicate a lack of joined-up thinking about how to deal with the deficit.

Ian Arnott (ex-HMRC)

Werrington, Peterborough

• The signatories of the letter condemning Spain’s implementation of article 155 following Catalonia’s declaration of independence (Letters, 30 October) should remember the way in which Catalonian and Spanish dignitaries marched hand in hand in Barcelona after the Las Ramblas terrorist attack. In an increasingly fractured world, this model of solidarity is surely the best way forward.

Stan Labovitch

Windsor

• Jean Curry (Letters, 30 October) has the answer in her own name when she asks what can be done with pumpkin flesh. There are some wonderful, tasty recipes from Bengal using pumpkins. It made it really annoying when my pumpkin at my allotment years ago was stolen, presumably to be wasted.

Jane Ghosh

Bristol

• We have a new game in this house. We try to guess whether the Monday morning picture of Mrs May and her husband will show them entering or leaving church.

Peter Munro

Congleton, Cheshire

• But does she go to pray or to confess?

Geoff Wicks

Derby

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