Reflections on aspects of the Christmas spirit | Letters

Barry West’s theory about the Cornish origins of Jacob Marley’s surname is an interesting one, but it forges a rather too tenuous connection between his beloved home county and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Ghost of Cornish past, 20 December). Dickens’ childhood in Kent would have given him ample opportunity to see lighthouses, miners and sailors long before his visits to Cornwall.

Moreover, the well-known folk song “Elsie Marley ... the wife who sells the barley” would have meant that surname was far from being “unusual”. A verse and chorus of the song are quoted in the novel The Fortunes of Nigel (1822) by Sir Walter Scott, with whose works Dickens was very familiar. Originating in the north of England in the 18th century, the song could well have been heard by Dickens on his first trip to Teesdale in 1838. It would also have been very familiar to his lifelong friend and biographer, Newcastle-born John Forster.
Dr Christopher Goulding
Newcastle upon Tyne

• Stephanie Merritt’s article about John Masefield’s The Box of Delights (A need for dark tales in these dark times, 20 December) is the third in recent days to draw attention to this magical tale and to its relative obscurity. Merritt refers to her discovering the work through the BBC adaptation in 1984. Torday’s new adaptation, now playing at Wilton’s Music Hall, was a completely new experience for your critic, Michael Billington.

Yet no one seems to have heard of the wonderful atmospheric production on BBC Children’s Hour in November 1948. With superb radio actors such as Norman Shelley, Carleton Hobbs, Wilfred Babbage and Preston Lockwood, and the inspired use of the eerie, atmospheric themes from Victor Hely Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony, this production lives on as a vivid memory for at least one reader – and I would be surprised if I were the only one.
John Hunter
Bristol

• Stephanie Merritt is wrong that Masefield only wrote two stories for children. I read his adventure story Jim Davis, published in 1911, which was one of the first books I got from the public library in 1944 at the age of eight. I remember it as one of the books that set me on the pathway of excitement in reading.
Brian Ingram
Northampton

• I beat Lucy Mangan to tear-flow point during The Repair Shop at Christmas (Last night’s TV, 20 December), but I did start during the same section of the programme – the polyphon repair. I started filling up as the craftsman described how he was excited with curiosity and anticipation as he took the musical device apart. I too wondered why I had missed all the rest of the series. One of its beauties is how none of the repair team make any attempt to be “TV personalities” by ridiculously histrionic behaviour. Their real televisual skill is how the team take on the love and compassion of the owners for their treasures as they do the exploratory surgery for them. And then, darn it, they make each other nice presents.
Jonathan Hauxwell
Crosshills, North Yorkshire

• Sorry to see no reference to St Lucies Day/winter solstice/shortest day in the Guardian. After all, things can only get brighter for us now. For a few months, anyway.
Ron Clarke
Malvern, Worcestershire

• The major London housing association Peabody has sent its tenants a Christmas message headed: “A few things to remember this Christmas”. It starts, “We’ve pulled together a roundup of all the useful information you might need over the holidays, from parking and disposing of your bulky waste to our Christmas opening hours and key contact numbers. It’s also really important that you make sure you are able to pay your rent this Christmas, otherwise you may put yourself at risk of losing your home.” A charitable trust truly getting with the spirit of Christmas.
Nik Wood
London

• Thank you for the Guardian Christmas card you sent me! In these days when we are all being slowly wheeled off to hell in a handcart by a vicar’s daughter, it raised quite a chuckle. Let’s hope the cart takes a U-turn in 2018.
Grenville Gilbert
Ottery St Mary, Devon

• When the Royal Mail was owned by the state, I sent most of my Christmas greetings by cards to help support a nationalised industry. Now that it is owned privately, I send as many e-cards as I can. Why should I help to pay for the fat-cat salaries those at the top receive?
Ken Vines
Horrabridge, Devon

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