I can see where Penelope Reid is coming from (Letters, 2 November). Maybe her idea of vegetarians and vegans working on farms could be extended. What if every committed meat-eater were to spend three years working in an abattoir? I delivered meat for a butcher in my village as a teenager and regularly saw cattle and pigs being slaughtered. I’ve been vegetarian for nearly 50 years now.
Orlando Goodden
Frome, Somerset
• My husband and I are not vegan, or vegetarian, though we eat very little meat; but a kind providence, decades ago, gifted us the best cookbook I have ever used: Gail Duff’s Vegetarian Cookbook. Duff isn’t a veggie either, simply a food genius. One-pot cooking, mostly vegan, a few simple ingredients in brilliant combinations. A copy in every UK house would transform the nation’s health, not by food preachiness but sheer eating pleasure. Gail Duff, thank you for 45 years of delicious meals.
Hilary Cashman
Norton-on-Tees, County Durham
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