P. Henderson, from Mayfair, London, asks for the polite way to eat an orange.

Take your delicious orange slowly, without splashing your neighbours. Peel it carefully with your fruit knife. A delicate eater can remove the peel in a single strip without breaks. Remove the pith fastidiously. Separate into segments. Cut each segment into half. Enjoy. PH

John Welsh, Croftamie, Stirlingshire: “My grandmother used to eat an orange like a boiled egg. She cut a piece off one end and then ate it with a grapefruit spoon, scooping out the flesh and juice adding sugar as required.”

Glen Thomas, Whitley Bay: “I have seen some Chinese gentlemen eating oranges at table by using a sharp knife to cut them into four segments, from top to bottom. Each segmemnt can then be picked up in one hand and eaten easily and cleanly.”

Christopher Gibson, Blackpool: “In Mrs Gaskell's Cranford Miss Matty Jenkins liked to suck oranges, and would retire discreetly behind a screen in order to do so, as her elder sister, Miss Deborah Jenkyns, was distressed both by the action and by the word.”

Readers are invited to send their responses to this week’s question by December 8.

What is the etiquette for opening and ending e-mails, please?

Mike Drury, Eastbourne