SOMEONE once wrote the crossword clue HIJKLMNO (5). The answer was water, as in H2O, and quite possibly on the brain.

"I love it, one of my all time favourites," says Christine Jones, a woman pretty clued up to the Machiavellian machinations of the cryptic crossword compiler.

Working from her home in the former Methodist chapel at Middleton Tyas, near Scotch Corner - where she's also parish council clerk - Christine produces a monthly magazine for crossword addicts which is posted to 12 countries and offers new puzzles by the fiendish and the formidable.

Among the regulars is retired vicar John Graham, a former chaplain of St Chad's college in Durham who, at 84, is still reckoned Britain's cleverest compiler. Chambers, his publishers, simply call him "The mighty one".

It was Graham who wrote the "notorious" anagram "Chaste Lord Archer vegetating" to which the answer was "The Old Vicarage Grantchester," Archer's home.

A good clue is one that the solver enjoys, he says. Doubtless for services to enjoyment, he was awarded the MBE earlier this year.

His pen name's Araucaria, which means monkey puzzle tree. "I often wish I had chosen a name which people could spell or pronounce, or both," he told a gathering in Edinburgh last year.

Other crack compilers hide coyly behind names Ximenes or Torquemada, Didymus, Chorybdis or even Dumpynose (which doubtless means something different in Greek).

There are puzzles for those with the ability to pick a grid lock, to perform a cerebral square dance, to think laterally and, sometimes, lying down.

In the foreword to Araucaria's first crossword compilation, the actress Prunella Scales wrote that she loved going to bed with him. They got Timothy West, her husband, to write the foreword for the second.

Novelist Ian Rankin is another Araucaria addict. "The most infuriatingly ingenious setter working today," he says.

So how fare the cruciverbalists against the unnumbered hordes of the sudoku solvers? "I don't think sudoko's popularity has made any difference to us at all," says Christine.

"If anything, it might encourage people to do puzzles generally, though maybe they attract a different type of person."

The first newspaper crossword, then called a word cross, appeared in the New York World in 1913. The Sunday Express in 1924 was the first British newspaper regularly to include one, The Times from 1930 the first daily.

Never a crossword enthusiast, Christine's interest began after filling in the Financial Times in spare moments at work. "I got one clue and thought I was very clever, then a week later got two and thought I was away.

"I enjoy tackling them but I'm not a brilliant solver, no great authority. Crosswords just grow on you and I got to know a lot of the characters involved. They were all nice people; it was an interesting little hobby."

The 22-year-old magazine, called 1 Across - it has a monkey puzzle tree on the cover - includes five or six new puzzles plus news and views from those most likely to regard life as one big puzzle.

From the October issue, we are thus able to report an ecstatic review for the newly published Chambers Crossword Lists (£10.99) but that, according to editor Tom Johnson, they've spelt Teesside Airport as "Teeside."

We've more bad news: it's now Durham Tees Valley.

Christine, mother of two and with a baby granddaughter, moved to the decommissioned chapel 15 years ago and has helped in its handsome conversion.

She is also involved with Chambers in other crossword publishing projects, including two compilations devoted entirely to Araucaria's ingenious output.

Her readership, she supposes, may often be elderly, or at least retired. They have more time. "I have a few little old ladies who write to say that they feel it's getting harder but that they'll keep going because it keeps dementia at bay.

"I should say they're very intelligent people, shouldn't I, because some of the puzzles are really quite hard. It's a challenge, mentally stimulating. I'll never make a fortune out of it, but I love every minute."

* A sample copy of 1 Across can be obtained by sending a self-addressed C5 envelope to Christine Jones at The Old Chapel, Middleton Tyas, Richmond, North Yorks DL10 6PP.

FOR a free crossword "taster", just published, Chambers asked their crossword authors to suggest the clues which had given them most pleasure. Here are some of them, answers at the foot of the column.

Leaves, those holding up trains? (5)

It's out of place in sad picture. (7,3)

I say nothing (3)

Potty train (4).

No man's land (6,4).

His flipping feet get him into deep water (7).

The traditional bed-time story? (5,5).

With head down? (7-7).

Constable country? (6,5).