Briefly

I've been a Scientologist for 15 years and it is news to me that I'm banned from worshipping at or even entering the Christian church in which I was brought up or any other Christian church ("Scientologists face battle to become charity", 18 August).

Edmead Kangai, Manchester

Ros Wynne-Jones asks us to "remember Voltaire", and repeats his famous saying, "I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it" ("'Scientific racist' must be gagged", 18 August). The trouble is that it wasn't his. It was put into his mouth more than a century after his death by the English writer S G Tallentyre in her book The Friends of Voltaire (1906). Nicolas Walter, London Nl

Maddy Allen is wrong when she says readers aren't interested in reviews of artists they don't like (Letters, 18 August). Reviewers have a duty to describe what they see and hear, and if it's crap they must say so. As a fan of quality rock I love it when talentless gits are slagged off, especially when it's Bryan Adams who really is crap. No pretentions? Maddy, you've been had.

Richard Chainey

Mold, Flintshire

The naive view that unwanted pregnancies are caused by people's inability or unwillingness to pay for contraceptives is belied by the experience of the past 30 years (Letters, 18 August). When these were almost totally unavailable for most people, the abortion rate was a fraction of what it is today.

Alan Pavelin Chislehurst, Kent

Unfortunately for England and the European Ryder Cup team, Phil Mickelson (not Mickleson) is American. He was born in Arizona and was the US amateur champion in 1990 ("New golf ... where Dennis Hopper meets Ronnie Corbett", Real Life, 18 August).

Michael Gilford

St Germans, Cornwall