No tahini in Mossley (Letters, 16 August)? One bank holiday weekend at the Co-op in Whitby I witnessed a visitor asking a member of staff which shelf the “keen-wa” was stored. The employee said: “We don’t stock ‘keen-wa’.” Passing supervisor said (in a broad Yorkshire accent): “If you mean that ‘quin-no-na’ stuff, on t’shelf on t’left.”
Mark Newbury
Farndale, Yorkshire
• As the surgeon hovered over me prior to my vasectomy (Letters, 13 August) he asked what I did for a living. On hearing that I was a primary school headteacher he said: “Well I hope you teach them the Lord’s Prayer.” Given the delicate situation I’m afraid this convinced atheist caved in and said “yes”.
David Witt
Malmesbury, Wiltshire
• Val McDermid (Report, 16 August) says that fiction readers make better leaders, citing Nicola Sturgeon, Jacinda Ardern, Katrín Jakobsdóttir and Sanna Marin. I wonder if they have anything else in common?
Dr Richard Carter
London
• During this dreadful, gloomy six months, your Country diary has offered me solace and hope that the world has not gone completely mad. Has a collection of these calming columns been published?
Patricia Whitehead
London
• August 2020: when parents stopped choosing “Gavin” for their baby’s name.
Peter Brooker
West Wickham, Kent
• It is the middle of August and so far not one letter on blackberry jam or bramble jelly!
Doug Sandle
Leeds
