“Philip Hammond has signalled that the government is facing a multibillion-pound loss from selling its 73% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland” (Report, 19 April). Is that the government or the UK taxpayer facing the massive loss? And who precisely will be making a profit out of the shares when they’re sold at rock-bottom prices?
Father Julian Dunn
Great Haseley, Oxfordshire

• The toast mentioned in Clare Stares’ Country diary (14 April) is “to the little man in black velvet”. William III was riding a black pony when it was distracted by a mole and unseated him causing his eventual death. Whether the toast referred to the pony, originally belonging to Sir John Fenwick, a Jacobite executed for high treason, or to the mole is uncertain.
Geoff Fenwick
Southport

• Reading about spoilers (Letters, 20 April) reminded me of the awful one in Penguin’s 1967 edition of War and Peace. While I was transfixed wondering if Andrei would survive, the cover of volume two showed the painting Death of Prince Andrei by Leonid Pasternak. As an aside, one chapter opens with the glorious line: “Count Rostov had the grandest balls in all Russia”.
Akiva Solemani
London

• Felicity Cloake’s recipe for salted caramel brownies (G2, 20 April) looks truly excellent. However, please could she explain her central premise of “surplus Easter chocolate”?
Colin Barr
Ulverston, Cumbria

• Among the other things we have to worry about during the next seven weeks is that, on the principle of burying bad news, the BBC might use this period of preoccupation with politics to announce a staggeringly poor choice to take over the role of Doctor Who (Pass notes, G2, 18 April).
Bryn Hughes
Wrexham, Clwyd

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