Rembrandt by Himself National Gallery

THE MOST famous embrace in the world of art finally returned home yesterday, after an absence of more than 80 years. A version of Rodin's "The Kiss" again went on show in the East Sussex town of Lewes.

THE JOURNALS OF GEORGE ELIOT EDITED BY MARGARET HARRIS AND JUDITH JOHNSTON CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, pounds 55

Sir: There are lies, damned lies, statistics and future projections ("Land needed for 600,000 homes", 27 May). The population is not increasing; the homes won't be given to the homeless; guesses about future divorce rates seem a vague basis for such a dogmatic assertion.

A PAEDOPHILE jailed for life for kidnapping two 10-year-old girls had previously been imprisoned after abducting another child.

The instructions were explicit.

ONCE IT would have been the most shocking work of art in Britain. The director of the British Museum admitted yesterday: "There was a time we would have locked it away in a cupboard." But now as a sure sign that we are a culturally open-minded nation, the museum has spent pounds 1.8m - its most expensive purchase in over a decade - on a Roman goblet which depicts scenes of homosexual love-making and paedophilia. Some pounds 300,000 comes from the Lottery.

Melancholia, brain dissections and Dickens for dinner - on George Eliot

The veteran singer Andy Williams, currently enjoying a renaissance with his retrospective collection, `In the Lounge with Andy Williams', has just entered the singles chart at No 9 with `Music to Watch Girls By'.

Letter:

SLOUGH HAD to settle for their third European indoor silver medal after losing 7-1 to Russelsheimer in Glasgow yesterday, the Germans winning their sixth successive title. Jane Smith had earlier scored two goals as Slough beat Siauliai of Lithuania 4-2 in the semi-final. Smith, with 13 goals, finished the event's top scorer.

Sir: Your correspondents (letters, 11 February) are disingenuous when they compare religion to concert-going and mountaineering. What distinguishes religious people is not the funny things they do but the beliefs they hold, and the fact that those beliefs cannot be verified by logic or evidence of the senses.

SOME MUSICIANS did not have "the draconian hand of a parent propelling them forward" (Education, 4 February), but one propelling them firmly backwards. Thomas Arne, Berlioz, Boulez, Handel, Haydn and Johann Strauss II all encountered strong parental opposition.

LEWES, THE only non-Premier League side guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals of the EHA Cup, were yesterday drawn away to the holders, Cannock, while Hounslow and Southgate will contest another Middlesex derby.