Hamlet knew about the nocebo effect | Brief letters

Power of the mind | Scattering ashes | Bus travel | Refusing to age | A better Saturday with the long read

Nocebo awareness is nothing new (I made my husband ill with a few words – nobody is immune to the power of the nocebo effect, 8 May). Shakespeare knew of the syndrome more than 400 years ago. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” – Hamlet, act two, scene two.
Terence Adams
Birmingham

• Scattering my dad’s ashes in a river in Bannau Brycheiniog back in 2005 (Letters, 8 May), we had thought they would float gently away on the current. Instead, they sank straight to the bottom. My brother, in his surprise, lost his footing, fell in and emerged covered in the remains of the most wonderful father, who never did learn to swim.
Helen Ryan
Blandford Forum, Dorset