I READ with interest the article by Rosemary Goring regarding what might or might not be considered essential shopping ("Booze, books or begonias, what exactly is essential shopping, officer?", The Herald, April 15), as it is a subject I have given much thought to myself.

Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus my wife has been practising “shielding” due to underlying health conditions which put her in the vulnerable category. In order to protect her from the possibility of contacting the virus from me I have not been inside a shop or any public place since lockdown began and instead have managed our supermarket shopping using “click and collect”, delivery slots being unavailable.

In my experience this has been well managed, as one is given a time slot for collection which is accessed from a temperature-controlled van in a quiet corner of the car park and therefore one does not have to go inside the shop or get close to other people. Given that I have to be there to collect “essential shopping” anyway, surely it does not make any difference to anyone else if I have chosen to include, for example, a bottle of whisky, wine or chocolates in my shopping? The same applies to in-store shopping.

In this time of crisis, is it really such a bad thing to want a wee bit of luxury? Credit where it is due to Police Scotland, who have not followed the heavy-handed approach adopted by some forces in England.

David Clark, Tarbolton.

ROSEMARY Goring fears that the only locally produced alternatives to olive oil are dripping or lard. Not so; there is Scottish-produced rapeseed oil, which is one of the healthiest cooking oils as well as being low on food miles.

Jane Ann Liston, St Andrews.

First among seconds

WITH the news that Doug Sanders has now joined the great “Golf Course in the Sky” ("PGA Tour veteran Sanders dies, aged 86, Herald Sport, April 14), veterans of “a good walk spoiled” will remember his missed three-footer on the 18th green at St Andrews in 1970 to win The Open, and his remark years later that sometimes the miss didn’t cross his mind for a full five minutes and that he was the only golfer to be more famous for coming second – to be joined later of course by the unfortunate Jean van de Velde at Carnoustie in 1999.

R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.

Alas, poor Hamish

GIVEN that, week after week, we share Boz's crossword setting with this lad called Hamish, can we be told if he is a boy, a man, or as I like to think, a dog? I do know a wee dug called Hamish. It is such a suitable canine name.

I must add that I feel sorry for Hamish in the puzzle today (April 14 when after reading the clue, "going round university, Hamish oddly smells bad", it becomes obvious that the poor chap "hums". Really?

Thelma Edwards, Kelso.