Work-life balance and Saint Monday | Brief letters

Changing weekends | The Sussexes’ security | Brotherly beard wars | A collective sigh | Lady Dagenham Jess Cartner-Morley writes about the changing nature of the weekend ( 16 August ).

In the 19th century, Saint Monday was a key feature of working-class railway excursions.

There were many complaints, but a correspondent in the Birmingham Daily Post in 1860 commented that labourers who were being lectured about not working on Mondays might be compared with MPs who did not start work in the Commons until Thursdays, and that the workers actually achieved their targets despite taking Mondays off.

Dr Susan Major York • On the vexed question of who will pay for the Sussexes’ security on their return to the UK ( Report, 20 August ), maybe that nice Mr Farage could bung them a few quid? Andrew Platman Beckenham, London Continue reading...