As children my brothers and sisters and I had a regular diet of bread and butter spread with honey – admittedly often laced with bees’ heads, legs and wings. My beekeeper father would give us the honey that couldn’t be sold. The advantage of honey over sugar (Is sugar the world’s most popular drug?, 5 January) is that you know when you’ve had enough. You don’t crave and overeat, as with food sweetened with sugar. Thus we can relax and enjoy this sweet treat – though better perhaps without the bees’ legs.

Bridget Gubbins

Morpeth, Northumberland

• John Berger (Obituary, 2 January) inspired one of my favourite art quotes. In a TV interview he asked the artist LS Lowry how he felt about the increasingly high price of his paintings being beyond the pocket of the working-class people that he depicted. Lowry memorably replied: “Well, they never bought them when they were cheap.”

James Kelso

Watlington, Oxfordshire

• Your Wordsearch (10 January) asked “Can you find 12 authors in the grid?”. It should have read “Can you find 12 male authors in the grid?” Now can we have one for female writers please?

Sheila Harrison

Llandudno, Conwy

• My Italian wife, Anna, frequently calls me “un broccolo” (Letters, 10 January).Unfortunately she states it figuratively, the meaning being “you stupid person”. Well, it is a masculine noun.

Bernard Lee

Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire

• How many Pimlici must I visit before I am offered a panino?

Duncan Grimmond

Markington, North Yorkshire

• So, when did so become the new er?

Martin Jeffree

Maresfield, East Sussex

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters