I was very amused by Hadley Freeman’s comments on jazz snobs (Ryan Gosling in La La Land is every bad date you ever had, 21 January). Jazz snobs can be women too. I’ve been a jazz snob since I was a teenager. I astounded my dates by telling them I didn’t want to be a rock star when I left high school, I wanted to be Billie Holiday. My “weird” taste in music didn’t damage my social life. My husband is fond of synthesisers and prog-rock. We’ve been married for nearly 25 years and get along harmoniously. He plays his music, I play mine, and I enjoy watching old episodes of Top of the Pops with him and learning which synths were played in which hit song from the 80s. It was his idea to name our canaries Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Oscar Peterson.
Ivy Dennett-Thorpe
Felixstowe, Suffolk
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