When I said I was going to see Hamnet, my friends said to take plenty of tissues as it was so sad. It was affecting, but not nearly as much as watching Dirty Business, the Channel 4 docudrama about pollution in our rivers and seashores, in which a little girl died of E coli after playing on a West Country beach (Dirty Business review – if this doesn’t incite righteous anger over our filthy water then nothing will, 23 February).
Sheila Brignall
Great Chishill, Cambridgeshire
• I am sorry that Michael White (Country diary, 21 February) has never achieved 100% grit-free cockles. Our family tradition is to leave them in clean seawater for at least 24 hours; the cockles, thrilled to be in an ungritty environment, expel every last smidgen of grit – no confusing oatmeal required. And with lemon wedges and brown bread and Guernsey butter: bliss.
Tim Barnes
St Peter Port, Guernsey
