I SYMPATHISE with Mr and Mrs Bucknell ('Cemetery ban on Jamie's headstone', April 17).

Why shouldn't they have a picture of their beloved son on his gravestone - pompous officialdom again? Wandering around beautiful cemeteries in Spain and Italy I have often thought what a charming custom it is to display small photographs and cameos of loved ones. It also provides an interesting pictorial social history.

Perhaps we should adopt another continental custom of erecting small roadside shrines and candles to replace the ever-increasing sad bunches of flowers appearing on our roads. The glow along the A64 and outer ring road may remind selfish speeding drivers of their own mortality.

Pamela Egan,

North Lane,

Malton Road, York.

Updated: 10:48 Wednesday, April 24, 2002