The Revd Giles Fraser’s series of reflections (4-8 December) on his recent cardiac arrest opened with the presenter measuring his pulse, closely followed by the sound of the heart itself. This had begun to malfunction on the evening after last June’s London terrorist attack on Borough Market, which Fraser, whose parish adjoins the area, had visited to say a prayer. Waking in great pain, and initially brushing aside his wife’s concerns as an overreaction, he later underwent a quadruple bypass in St Thomas’ Hospital.