SIR - Loved Emma Clayton's lament for the increasingly rapid demise of the home telephone.

Brought back memories of my first office job as a spotty 16-year-old where I was expected to answer the telephone. This, for someone for whom there had been no landline ever in our house, I had zero experience and even less confidence in handset etiquette and on answering calls I also had a 'live' audience in the general office listening in!

These days the spoken word has very much succumbed to 'data' and providers provide a landline more as a sweetener than essential kit. We have one and at least know not to answer any calls as even WE don't know the number!

And a reason why Superman is rarely seen in Bradford? Hardly any telephone boxes remain for him to get changed in....

John Murphy, Cooper Lane, Bradford