Regarding books one likes to read, in my late teens Mary Webb’s Gone to Earth was my favourite. I shed tears over it. Her other books were lovely also, and I read all Georgette Heyer’s Georgian and Reginey romances.
In later years, I was enthralled by Dorothy Dennett’s Crawford of Lymond (a Scottish saga) and [more…]
Cryptic clues have the ability to take you into a fantasy world where ageing can be reversed, where Sue keeps her horse in a backstreet and where Eisenhower put a ban on floral art. What fun!
In the Giant Cryptic contest ‘Why age son, when it can be reversed with a bouquet?’ at 7ac gave [more…]
We clue this variously as ‘Alfred the Great’s kingdom’, ‘Thomas Hardy’s fictional area’ or even ‘Prince Edward, Earl of …’. So what or where is Wessex? The story of Wessex is really the story of the beginning of England.
Wessex was the Kingdom of the West Saxons, founded around AD 500 by Cerdic. The kingdom [more…]
We like to think of ourselves, along with all you good readers, as a happy, puzzling crew, especially when it comes to matters of words; veritable comrades in clues!
The comradeship may have been stretched a bit thin at 9ac in The Demon when we had to disqualify a few entries because of the misspelling [more…]
Many years ago James and I travelled around Australia in a double-decker bus which had been converted into a home. Now we’re repeating history except that we’ll be in a motorhome and we’re about 30 years older.
We’re hitting the road next month to meet and greet our NSW puzzlers on The Lovatts Across & [more…]
Since asking for feedback about your favourite books, I’ve discovered that you puzzlers have a passion for reading.
Vanezza Kirkaldy loves to spend time in the library and re-reads good books. “One that really brought the tears was The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks” she writes. She also loves Frank Dalby Davison’s Dusty and Man Shy [more…]
The Baffler is bafflier,
The Stinker’s demonic.
Our searches are deeper,
We need a MNEMONIC.
El Camino’s trail REAL
We found was quite royal.
We love being baffled.
To Lovatts we’re loyal!
If your sand sea’s an ERG,
Then you’re in the SAHARA.
If your tree seeds are wingèd,
It’s M for SAMARA.
FIACRE? A French word
For an old-fashioned coach.
Don’t GYBE in your yacht
If you don’t [more…]
The weather becomes mighty cold down here,
Normal for this time of year,
When I need a ‘cheerer-uppa’,
My first instinct is to make a ‘cuppa’,
So to win a Bodum mug and teapot,
Which keep my beverage piping hot,
Is a definite plus – they look good too,
And when I settle down to do,
A Lovatts puzzle – or maybe [more…]
Now that winter’s here, how tempting it is to stay at home and rug up warm and cosy. Wrapped up in a duvet*, perhaps. What if you could actually wear your duvet?
Sounds too good to be true, especially if you’re one of those hothouse plants that really feels the cold, but a small Australian [more…]
