Constable’s gloomy paintings may have been as much due to his colour vision as his wife’s health (Paintings reveal Constable’s gloomy sojourn in Brighton, 7 April). In The World Through Blunted Sight, Patrick Trevor-Roper suggested that he could have been red-green colour blind – greens overloaded with red to pep them up, broken colour to avoid mixing it and his famous white flecks, “Constable’s snow”, to add life. The major show of his work at the Tate in 1977 had a board outlining this theory but there is no record of the text in its archives.
David Cockayne
Lymm, Cheshire
• Claire Ptak’s Chocolate-pistachio simnel cake has no fruit, no spices and no marzipan (Cook, 8 April). She says in the recipe that the chocolate “kisses of pearls” on top resemble the traditional marzipan balls that represent the 11 apostles. However, the one pictured on the cover has 13.
You might as well call it a chocolate-pistachio shepherd’s pie. I am sure it’s perfectly delicious but a simnel cake it clearly isn’t.
Richard Andrews
Dunstable, Bedfordshire
• Despite reading the Guardian for 45 years, I had failed to grasp the Unitarian connection (The paper’s relationship with its readers is unlike any other, 8 April). But then I realised that the secondary school teacher who had the most formative influence on my life was also a Unitarian– her father had been a minister. Clearly I was destined to read the paper.
Maureen Panton
Malvern, Worcestershire
• Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s indignation that governments should wish to see and read everything about their subjects is surprising (Report, 4 April). Henry VIII nationalised postal services so he could read our letters.
David Beake
Budock Water, Cornwall
• The headline on Matthew Engel’s article (The sun sets on county cricket as we know it, 8 April) is sadly true. County cricket is honourable and iconic but sadly unsupported. At the County Ground, Northampton, Engel writes that “a few hundred turned up”. This compares with average gates of 14,000 at Northampton Saints rugby club, 5,200 at Northampton football club and 5,000 for Northants T20 matches.
Toby Wood
Peterborough
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