The lesson children learn from smacking | Brief letters

Corporal punishment | The five-second rule | Albert Camus | Democratic barons | Toilet turns So it takes a study of 19,000 children to show that smacking leads them to struggle with exams (Report, 11 June). Probably true, but the main lesson they learn is that violence can fix a problem provided you are bigger and stronger than your opponent. A message picked up in the kindergarten and carried as far as the White House.Geoff WheelerBalsall Common, West Midlands Your article had an interesting but only a partial analysis of bacterial safety (Is it true that … you have five seconds’ grace after dropping food on the floor?, 15 June). The full rule is “Pick it up within five seconds and then blow on it.” It’s the combination that works.Malcolm MitchellHarrow, London Laura Orchard says there are “no authors from Africa” featured in your Guardian readers’ top 100 novels (Letters, 12 June). However, the list does have The Outsider and The Plague by Albert Camus, both set in French Algeria, where he was born and spent most of his life. Andrew CarrollCastletimon, County Wicklow, Ireland Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty describes Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook, who died this week (Report, 14 June)