A great read on how plagues change us | Brief letters

Safer singing | Books | Face masks | Cricket | China’s Covid-19 storyEmma Lilley (Letters, 26 July) inquires about humming or vocalising as a way to get back to singing. The master of wordless choral composition was, of course, Frederick Delius. Lilley’s choir might like to investigate the first of Delius’s two part-songs, To Be Sung of a Summer Night on the Water. Ravishing harmonies, but no words!Nick Chadwick Oxford• The book everyone should be reading is William McNeil