After trying some of the British crosswords in variety puzzle books I got at my local CVS or Kroger stores, and after watching the Inspector Morse mysteries, I decided to try my hand at some I got off internet sites. It's a serious challenge, and imo, much more interesting than American crosswords which have gotten too boring for me to work.

The challenges are several-fold. For example, British spelling differences sometimes catch me out. I would spell the British -organise- with a zee and that was one of the words that in the cross needed an -s- .. so I put -organism- instead of -organise-. That's a minor difficulty, though, compared with the cultural stuff.

For instance, one clue was "musical females" and the answer was -Rosemarie- .. and I have no idea why. I think I put Rosymuses, and I knew that didn't make sense but I had no idea what the clue was after and still don't.

I finally found a site where the crosswords are divided into easy, medium, and hard.. and I can actually finish the easy ones which aren't really easy for me. That's probably a better place to start.

I also learned that the Brits really love their crosswords. They have contests and prizes, and some of them are in the thousands of pounds. That's so great!

Sue