Sir: It was unfortunate that Bryan Appleyard should have said at the end of an otherwise balanced article (3 May) that "therapy, like the cults, is religion gone wrong", thereby sweeping us all into the same pigeon- hole and contradicting his earlier...

Sir: If Maggie Brown aspires to be a restaurant critic as well as a theatre reviewer, she must polish her skills of observation (Diary, 3 May). Closer attention to the meal cooked by Lia Williams in David Hare's play Skylight would have revealed that...

Sir: The article in the Magazine (29 April) on the Jesus Army was sensational and unbalanced. You describe the Jesus Army as "one of Britain's fastest-growing cults", and refer to exploitation and brainwashing in a way that can only be described as s...

Sir: You reported (3 May) that major European importers had scrapped orders for hand-knotted carpets from Pakistan. The tragic death of Iqbal Masih has created unprecedented media coverage for the issue of child slavery and has rightly mobilised publ...

Sir: I very much appreciate and must congratulate Barbara Hoddinott for her letter (29 April) referring to the forgotten group in the last war - the Merchant Navy. Fifty-three years ago I was with a unit of an infantry regiment at Crewe changing trai...

Sir: Barbara Hoddinott (Letters, 3 May) refers to the efforts of the Merchant Navy during the Second World War. I am pleased to advise you that, far from being forgotten, there is a service of commemoration and thanksgiving for the Merchant Navy at 1...

Sir: It was good to be alive on VE Day (Letters, 3 May). So it was. Just, with thousands of other POWs on the River Kwai and elsewhere in the Far East. It was just an ordinary day. No different to any other in the previous three years. Burying a few ...

Meeting Dame Vera is about as difficult as meeting the Queen, and an infinitely more intimidating experience. Fiercely protected by her husband of 54 years, Harry Lewis, it requires endless phone calls, negotiations and three cancellations (once beca...

I have, however, become very disturbed in the past few days by the controversy over the "Churchill papers" and the financing of the purchase of them for "the country" out of lottery money. I now hear that the Thatcher papers are to be presented free ...

Our original masterplan, on which the lottery application is based, included a detailed acoustical survey. What became apparent was that further studies would be necessary and that, given we were already operating in an acoustically difficult buildin...

Such images demonstrate that the gulf between the two sides is narrowing. Yet Wednesday's fracas in Londonderry - and John Major's subsequent threat to cancel next week's first meeting between the republicans and Michael Ancram, the Northern Ireland ...

Belgrade was promptly blitzed by the Luftwaffe while Zagreb hailed its German liberators. Serbia was truncated and subjected to German military rule for the duration of the war. Zagreb, in contrast, became the capital of a Ustasha-run Greater Croatia...

But the pair of them should not be put off. The Governor, Eddie George, can indeed make a reasonable economic case for a rise, designed to save Britain from rolling towards the downward curve of the country's typical boom-bust cycle. Mr George can ju...

But you will not find it surprising that we should stand by the principles to which we committed ourselves when we joined the Labour Party, and to which we were all asked to declare our allegiance when we were nominated as candidates for our party in...

In fact on 10 April 1995 the Council of Ministers also decided that accession negotiations with Malta "will start six months after the conclusion of the 1996 intergovernmental conference". Yours sincerely, SALV J. STELLINI High Commissioner Malta Hig...

I can only assume the programme was made some time ago as it certainly does not reflect the current situation, but that does not excuse collective abuse if reports are correct. At a meeting last Friday, the new executive, recommended by the Bishop Co...

Why do they all look so troubled in mind? Well, organising things is horrible at the best of times, but it can't be much fun trying to find out exactly how bouncy castles were powered in 1945 and then finding out that they didn't even have the blaste...