Gail Hebert

Lyricist Tim Rice is first in to bat in a new series of celebrity local history lectures in Barnes.

Malcolm Richards, former editor of the Richmond and Twickenham Times series of newspapers, has died aged 70.

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Trends and fierce competition affect the funeral business as they do any other. But the sensitive nature of a service which deals with people at their most vulnerable means, in the words of Robert Lodge, a director of family firm Lodge Brothers, that "you mess with tradition at your peril."

John Bird writes after seeing John Ayres' 1943 photograph on June 20 of 144 ATC Squadron ATC Regiment, based at Gainsborough School, Richmond.

Patricia Kauth says she was, "totally gobsmacked to open the paper and see the photograph on Hampton Primary School Nostalgia June 6."

For public authorities, works of art can be embarrassing gifts. Too often they attract graffiti and derision rather than admiration. None more so than Richmond's notorious Bulbous Betty'.

Trevor Olrog formerly of Richmond and now living in Australia wrote in May via the web: "I read the article Help salute the lives of servicemen' (February 1 and February 13, 2008) with great interest about Fred Abbott and his sister Jean Cook who are researching servicemen who died during World War II.