Venus is a warning to all of us on Earth.

*Hospital deaths | Venus | Bigger picture | Bookcases | Young sportswriter

I’m not sure how this is being measured, but these certainly aren’t the first cases of fatal hospital-acquired Covid in the UK (Tameside hospital fights fatal outbreak of hospital-acquired Covid, 15 September). My mother died in Queen’s hospital in Burton on 17 April from Covid, having been admitted two weeks earlier with an unrelated condition. She had tested negative for Covid on admission to the hospital.
Doug Horne
Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire

• “For 2bn years, Venus was temperate and harboured an ocean. But today, a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere blankets a near-waterless surface where temperatures top 450C” (Scientists find gas linked to life in atmosphere of Venus, 14 September). Surely a message for us all?
Dr Richard Bewley
Glossop, Derbyshire

• I think I’ve got this right – if I want to shoot birds with my camera I must be in a group of no more than six, but if I shoot them with a gun I can add 24 to my group (Coronavirus: hunting exempt from ‘rule of six’ restrictions in England, 15 September). Seems a bit hard on the birds.
Melanie White
Reading, Berkshire

• For a TV interview (Letters, 14 September), I’d display these on a bookcase behind me: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another) by John Masefield, and Making Things Better by Anita Brookner.
Margot Sutton
Ludlow, Shropshire

• What an insightful piece of writing by Rebecca Close, aged nine (I am a pair of glasses. I belong to the England cricketer Jack Leach, 15 September). Spectacular journalism. Keep an eye on her.
Fr Alec Mitchell 
Holyhead, Anglesey

16 September 2020

The Guardian