What constitutes the perfect full English breakfast?

Two fried eggs, two rashers of smoked back bacon, a good quality pork sausage, a couple of slices of black pudding, buttered toast and a grilled tomato, mustard and ketchup to taste and plenty of strong tea. No hash browns, baked beans or anything else.

CaroleBristol

Can't speak for the full English, but in the 1970s, a greasy spoon near King's Cross station advertised "Full Scottish breakfast – 50p". This consisted of a mug of tea, a bacon roll, two "wee Regal" cigarettes and a copy of the Daily Record.

notinkansasnowtoto

When I walked the Pennine Way about seven years ago I ate a full English at each of my 17 stops. Each was slightly different in terms of ingredients. The variables included baked beans, mushrooms, fried bread, black pudding etc, around a core of bacon, eggs and sausages. The core also varied in terms of how the eggs were cooked (some days there was a choice, others not), the number of sausages and whether the bacon was smoked or unsmoked.

My conclusion was that the primary requirements were, that the breakfast is individually cooked with good quality fresh core ingredients with whatever else is available. Plus, of course, a good pot of strong tea and hot toast.

I have also walked long distance trails in Scotland and found a "full Scottish" has the same variety and same requirements for perfection.

John Bromhall, Balerno, Edinburgh

Seeing as the decline in the English character started when we stopped drinking beer at breakfast, a true full English should include a pint of bitter.

John Gresham, Waterloo, Merseyside

What is the most unflattering description of a town in literature?

In the 19th century, the romantic novelist Ouida described Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, where she was living, as: "This petty-bourgeois town where the inhabitants must perforce ring their own doorbells lest they rust from disuse".

Tom Epton, Topham, Exeter, Devon

In William Morris's diaries about travelling to Iceland, he says of the train journey to Scotland: "North of Darlington the country gets hilly, and is soon full of character, with sharp valleys cleft by streams everywhere; but it is most haplessly blotched by coal, which gets worse and worse as you get towards Newcastle, so wretched and dispiriting that one wants to get out and back again: Newcastle itself has been a fine old town and very beautifully situated, but is now simply horrible: there is a huge waste of a station there, quite worthy of it."

BobboB

One need look no further than A Much-Maligned Town: Opinions of Reading 1126-2008. We may not be able to match the pinnacles of loathing offered to some other places, but with nearly 900 years of recorded dislike, at least we have a strongly consistent placement in the public consciousness. My favourite is from Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat: "We passed through Reading as quickly as possible. One does not like to linger."

darkling

The Shell Guides to Britain may not be "literature" but they are well written and contain some unflattering town descriptions. My favourite is from David Verey's The Shell Guide to Mid Wales (Faber 1960). Referring to Llandrindod Wells, he writes: "Round every corner one expects to find the sea; but there is no sea, only rain."

Roger Backhouse, Ilford

Fred Allen's putdown of Boston (in a letter to Groucho Marx, if memory serves): "I have just returned from Boston. It is the only sane thing to do if you find yourself up there."

blueeyedboy

Why do fingernails grow faster than toenails? Or is it just me?

Fingernails grow about twice as fast as toenails, according to research published in 1937 by Linden Edwards and Ralph Schott at Ohio State University. Toenails are subject to less wear and tear, so do not need to grow as quickly, whereas hands can be used as spades and fingernails can be used to prise things open, for example.

Fingernails grow at an average rate of just shy of 4cm a year, though there is quite a big variation between individuals. Growth rates depend on heredity, gender, age, and levels of exercise. Nails also grow faster in the summer. There is an urban myth that hair and nails continue growing after death when, in fact, the skin dehydrates and shrinks, creating the illusion that skin and nails have grown.

Mike Follows, Willenhall, West Mids

Because they see the light of day.

John Deval, Bristol

Any answers?

It is said that history is written by the winners, but how does the teaching of history differ between European nations? Does France teach Napoleon differently, or Germany have a different view of the world wars?

Chris Collins, Cupar, Fife

Is a shiny, spherical, bland supermarket apple just as good for us as a mottled, lumpy, tasty one?

Alicia Mitchell, Berlin

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