On Saturday morning I was preparing to bury a much-loved 15-year-old cat and the prospect of living under siege from the coronavirus for months seemed bleak. Then I opened my Guardian and discovered not only the perfect solace of Simon Armitage’s poem, Lockdown (21 March), but also the joy of a resurgent Nancy Banks-Smith (A tale for our times, 21 March). Please persuade her to come out of retirement. No one could better assume JB Priestley’s role in our current crisis and even a short weekly column would do wonders for morale.
Gerald Dunning
Tonteg, Rhondda Cynon Taff
• Thank you for the extra puzzles. I will no longer sit down to my morning cup of coffee and find there’s no suguru to get my brain going on a Saturday; and I can save Maslanka’s puzzles for Sunday. And what a joy to have the handcrafted kakuro back.
Laurie Moye
Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire
• Thank you for giving us some much-needed cheer amid the preoccupying gloom. A glorious centre spread of spring pictures lifted my spirits. And then finding you’ve at last given us a codeword on a Saturday raised my first audible cheer for weeks!
Annie Grist
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
• Thank you, thank you, thank you! For Simon Armitage, Nancy Banks-Smith and the additional codeword. Greater love hath no newspaper.
Vee Singleton
Framlingham, Suffolk
