There is a resonance in Adrian Chiles’s piece (I’ve cut down my drinking dramatically. So why do people think I tried to stop – and failed?, 16 December) for habitual pub drinkers and the depredations they suffer over the Christmas season. One can only assume that it’s for the sake of his sanity that he fails to recollect every barfly’s worst recurring nightmare: namely the horror that is New Year’s Eve.
David Chaloner
Greenfield, Greater Manchester
• Thank you, Jonathan Freedland, for your sensitive and thought-provoking piece on the death of David Cornwell (Le Carré’s death touched me. It feels like the grownups are leaving the room, 18 December). One small observation: the late rabbi Jonathan Sacks offered “sage advice” to non-Jewish people too. Thankfully, I am one of them, and I know of many others.
Dr Frances Dawbarn
Lancaster
• In your report of last week’s Sheffield United v Manchester United match (Manchester United and Rashford repeat comeback trick at Sheffield United, 17 December), frequent reference was made to “United”. As one of the teams has held that title longer, am I to assume this term refers to Sheffield United?
Robert Dowson
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
• Croquet may be a Covid-safe game for all ages and abilities (Letters, 21 December), but at my time of life I will give it a wide berth as one of the main objectives is to peg out.
Adrian Brodkin
London
• On the winter solstice, my husband was in the kitchen making Seville orange marmalade (Letters, 17 December). How? He froze two boxes of them in January.
Ann Newell
Thame, Oxfordshire
