Christine's Mailbag

We love receiving feedback from our puzzlers. Refer to our contact page for details of how to get in touch with any compliments or concerns. We'll get back to you as soon as possible. For your enjoyment, here's a selection of letters from Lovatts readers.

A Total Family Affair

Thank you so much for all the books of crosswords and puzzles. When they arrive in the mail it is a dash to see who will start them first.

We photocopy the competitions and all the family work on them.  My son particularly likes the cryptic and my husband does the pop words.

I get to [more…]

Poem by Robin Hardy

I’ve had to do this all by hand
So hope Christine will understand
My computer – it is out of ink
Brain won’t work – I cannot think
But I’ll ‘Lovatt’ when the prize is mine
And celebrate with ‘Hardy’ wine
Got writer’s cramp – my head is throbbin’
Here’s my entry – done by ‘Robin’

Love the cover!

What a beautiful cover photograph for the May 2009 BIG Crossword magazine. Just had to write and tell you what pleasure it gives me, so thank you.

I’m in my eighties, living alone, and my body is not so active, but my mind enjoys the stimulation from the magazines so much. What clever people Lovatts [more…]

A question of colour

Good Morning
I have just received my Christine’s BIG crossword book for May 2009 and whilst doing the Diamond crossword I found the clue (violet antiseptic). Your answer was “iodine”. Well iodine is Yellow/Brown. The violet antiseptic is (or was when I was a child, a long time ago) Condy’s Crystal. It has a violet [more…]

Thanks for online Code Cracker

Thank you so much for your daily updated online puzzles and especially the latest addition of Code Cracker. I find I love coming home to relax with the variety of puzzles after work and just before going to bed. When I go away on holiday, never do I go without the BIG CROSSWORD BOOK. [more…]

They all keep me happy!

Thank you for many happy hours of puzzling. George, now aged 76 has heart problems (4 heart attacks) and rests a great deal. I put up my little folding table, get out my books and spend a most pleasant afternoon or evening puzzling.

I use a Miriam-Webster Crossword Reference, a Collins dictionary and a set [more…]

Can You Read These Lines?

DERE DAGO
FORTE LORES
INA RO
DEMARNT LORES
DEMAR TRUX
FULA ENSAN
COUSAN DUX

Translation: There they go, forty lorries in a row. Them aren’t lorries, them are trucks, full of hens and cows and ducks.

Wynne Harwood
Blenheim, NZ

First win – finally!

Sincere thanks for the $50 cheque received for my Big Cash entry. What self-funded retiree wouldn’t be pleased to receive such a nice surprise in the mail during difficult financial times?  This is my first win although I photocopy my entries each month and check the answers when published.

I have been “puzzling” for several [more…]

Clerihews

Trish Parnell
Thinks she’s swell
She’s a thinker
But can’t do Stinker

Trish Parnell
Whakatane, NZ

Christine’s crosswords bring joy to me
I pounce upon them with cries of glee.
But Lovatt’s Logic – do I care
Who gets what, or when or where?

Meg Dillon
Margate, Qld

Oh Ali you are a funny ‘un,
With your cross-words as you’re doing ‘um
Can’t find the word, so expletives [more…]