Sir: How many more surveys, studies and "wide-ranging reviews" do we need to tell us the obvious: people like the cocooned environment of their cars and the freedom to go where and when they like.

As Britain headed for the hottest August since records began, the country's leading marriage counselling service yesterday predicted an upsurge in domestic strife, and the Royal Automobile Club pleaded with irate motorists not to get too hot under the collar.

The Great British Public loves nothing more than to talk about the weather and discuss its aches and pains, and this year the two favourite topics of conversation have come together in perfect harmony as medical experts warned yesterday that the hot weather is bad for the nation's health.

Sartorially, there will be nobody able to touch him at Troon.

Warwickshire 631-7 dec Hampshire 549-6

Pete Sampras is the king of cool at this year's French Open.

Sir: Janet Hind Duff (Letters, 19 February) is weary of hearing television presenters making our future weather sound like a wartime bombing raid. I am similarly weary of the facile adjectives of moral approval or disapproval reminiscent of wartime.

West Indies 130 Australia 434-5

Cold enough for you? The cold weather clouds do have a silver lining as far as the economy is concerned: cold weather such as Europe has been experiencing, is in the longer term (though not in the short) good for economic activity. Result? While Europe will experience a shortfall in growth over the winter, there should be a sharp bounce back in the spring and summer. That bounce will mean that overall activity through the year will turn out to be pretty much the same as it otherwise would have been. If we get a cold summer too, then growth will be higher.

Fresh evidence has emerged to support the widely held view that the problems affecting cider maker Matthew Clark this summer have been only partly due to the dramatic rise in popularity of alcopops. Recently commissioned research suggests that, contrary to Clark's claims, the cider market is growing fast but lack of investment in brands has quickly eroded the company's share of the sector.

Great Britain's tourists arrived here, where they play Papua New Guinea in a Test on Saturday, to find they had narrowly missed a riot which unconfirmed reports suggest had left two people dead.

Lee Rodwell reports on the importance of fitness before and during pregnancy

Did you hear the one about the removals outfit that sent its workforce on a training course so they could learn to laugh? Everyone was tickled pink. By Andrew G Marshall

Sir: I read with great interest Anna Pavord's article in today's Independent (23 August) entitled "Bring on the Olives and Bananas?"