Letters: The virtuous poor

I MUST take issue with Catherine Pepinster ("When the shopping has to stop", 24 January). I suspect that most of us have stopped shopping for one simple reason - we have no money.

Being poor is very expensive. Seeking happiness in simplicity and the cessation of desire may be a very noble goal or simply a way of making a virtue out of necessity.

MICHAEL WRIST

Ely, Cambridgeshire