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StageOctober 19, 2026

Diana Rigg’s newborn nibbling | Brief letters

Duty AI NewsroomOriginal coverage

Baby talk | Ashes to ashes | A simple life | Clean sweep from the 70s | Manchester streets

To add to the letters of support for Rachael Stirling (16 October) after she revealed that she had eaten some of the ashes of her mother, Diana Rigg, I remember Diana being interviewed by Michael Parkinson shortly after Rachael’s birth, where she revealed that she was so besotted with her newborn that she felt an almost overwhelming desire to nibble on her.

Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gosling. Phil Coughlin Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear • My late husband suggested that I mix his ashes with compost and plant a favourite rose in a pot to enjoy every year. I did this and enjoy beautiful blooms each summer.

If ever I move house I will be able to take him with me. Wendy H Hill Ledbury, Herefordshire • Perhaps it’s the age similarity, and some wistfulness for the (imagined?) simplicity of 1990s life, but what a lovely piece of writing by Paula Cocozza (18 again: I returned to my life in 1990.

Who – and what – would I find there?, 15 October). Simon Ollerenshaw Cambridge • Forget Trigger’s broom – I’ve still got, and use, the Addis broom, plus dustpan and brush set that I bought when I got married in 1972 (Letters, 16 October). Sadly, neither of my daughters wants to inherit it.

Stella Sadler Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire • Last Thursday’s Wordsearch in the print edition featured streets of London. In view of the new political approach in No 10, can we look forward to one looking at Manchester streets? Robin Hiley Girton, Cambridgeshire • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today?

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