May have some underlining and highlighting of text and some writing in the margins, but there are no missing pages or anything else that would compromise the readability or legibility of the text. And that makes them ideal for decoding that message, since it has been created using a Playfair code. Happily for us, Playfair codes are not uncrackable, which means that we later get an entire chapter in which Harriet and Lord Peter pore over sections of a Playfair grid.

I have a lot of admiration for the more prolific setters like Paul and (in their day) Araucaria and Rufus. The notes on your 96th puzzle include the unlikely phrase “This is the last fish-based puzzle in this collection”. I’m sure that the symmetries and patterns in the best grids are part of the appeal of crosswords and add to the solver’s motivation to complete a puzzle.Grids 54A and 54B (the ones with the Ss) have a preponderance of shorter lights, which matches the type of words that I like to clue, as does Grid 58 (the one with the Ws). I don’t think there are any valid anagrams that work at 19 across, which is perhaps a sign of the state of Mr Stimpson’s mind. My delight in this attention to detail was shared by the pioneering crossword setter Afrit, who first wrote down the golden rule of cryptics: “I need not mean what I say, but I must say what I mean. The most rewarding themes have the tightest focus: early on, I started a list of ideas based on fruit and veg, but quickly found that I had enough vegetable clues, so I put the fruit on one side. He aimed for 500 words a day on the train, devoting the rest of his working day to law (including Raymond Chandler’s will) and evenings and weekends to his family.

But everyone should, of course, read The Giant Jam Sandwich, along with John’s other books, including his illustrations to the works of Edward Lear and James Joyce. There are plenty of fish to choose from; they often have short names amenable to using in anagram clues, and we tend to find them funny.Like the maps of a cathedral close that we are given near the beginning, the puzzle takes up most of various pages while a canon and a reverend execute an admirably protracted solve. Fifty more puzzles from the Guardian and an additional five bonus puzzles previously only available online, including the notorious Referendum Day puzzle that was able to predict the result of the UK’s vote over its membership of the European Union with complete confidence.

In it, I tell the story behind the development of each crossword: how I thought of the theme, the ideas that didn’t made it into print and the unlikely connections that emerged afterwards. In the meantime, our next tome is a collection of thoughts about puzzles, along with the puzzles themselves.It’s a quick-crossword version of Victor Meldrew’s attempt to solve a baffling cryptic, which we have looked at here. I can’t sit down with a blank sheet of paper and know that in two or three hours I’ll have a puzzle, and I won’t start one until I know that I have at least three or four ideas for clues that will establish a theme. Seller has stated it will dispatch the item within 1 working day upon receipt of cleared payment - opens in a new window or tab . Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Biography: The Guardian is an award-winning British newspaper that consistently rates as the most-trusted newspaper in the country.