Art review | ‘Worser’ in Shakespeare | Youth hostelling | Driverless taxis | Egregious Americanism | Outage outrage

Jonathan Jones, in his review of the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition (Letters, 10 June), describes Tracey Emin’s The Crucifixion as a “masterpiece … the greatest new painting that’s been seen since Lucian Freud died”. Spare us this spurious hyperbole! The art critic Robert Hughes will be turning in his grave. Or as Jim, the grumpy philosopher in The Royle Family, would say: “Masterpiece my arse!’
John Rattigan
Doveridge, Derbyshire

• Re Iain Fenton’s racked brain (Letters, 9 June), yes, Shakespeare did use “worser”, multiple times in a dozen different plays. Cleopatra: “I cannot hate thee worser than I do.” Juliet: “Some word worser than Tybalt’s death.” Gloucester to King Lear: “Let not my worser spirit tempt me again.”
Sally Smith
Redruth, Cornwall