A reminder not to take true love lightly | Brief letters

When Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday clash | Nationwide | Ladies’ swimming places | Staples in compost | MarmaladeValentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday only occasionally clash, as Rhik Samadder rightly points out (G2, 12 February). But it’s a great opportunity to smuggle heart-shaped crosses of ash on to the foreheads of the faithful; a reminder that true love is costly, painful and usually entails sacrifice.
Fr Alec Mitchell
Manchester• When Joe Garner, Nationwide&rsq