Will Self (Made in Walberswick, Review, 31 March) would surely feel some affinity with Charles Rennie Mackintosh who, disillusioned with architecture and struggling with alcoholism, hid away in Walberswick, where, in 1914, he turned to watercolour painting. He painted Walberswick itself, but is best remembered for his many paintings of flowers, beautifully observed.
Joseph Nuttgens
Blandford, Dorset
• Morwenna Ferrier (The faddy eater, G2, 29 March) says mezcal is “vegan” while pointing out it always has a worm in it, and suggesting a sprinkling of worm salt too! Also she describes it in benign, pain-free terms but, in Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano, the alcoholic hero, Geoffrey Firmin, knows that once he starts on the mezcal he’s finished – lethally strong, crippling hangovers.
Chris Hardy
London
• Re the Queen Mother’s 1954 fridge that is still working (Say what?, G2, 3 April), I have a working General Electric fridge, bought in 1953 by my parents, imported by American friends. It has a wonderful pale pink interior. I’ve owned it since 1996 and have not had to change the lightbulb.
Barbara Baker
Leicester
• If you were to have the quick crossword at its former size (Letters, 4 April) and get rid of Pet Corner (who is interested in that?) there would be room to reinstate Pieceword. Yes, it was very easy, but it fulfilled a need.
Gill Gibson
Stowe, Buckinghamshire
• If self-identification of gender becomes law, how long before certain unscrupulous employers put pressure on some of their employees to identify as the opposite gender to reduce their gender pay gap?
Kate Rimmer
Nottingham
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