Advertisement ::

Enlarge Cartoon

Colin Dexter, OBE, wrote the Inspector Morse books and, like Morse, loves cryptic crosswords, both as a setter and a solver.

Cracking Cryptic Crosswords concludes with a note from his publisher, Jackie Gray, that explains the way idea the text was born when Jackie watched Colin Dexter solve The Timescryptic crossword in fifteen minutes on a train from Oxford to Didcot.

“He reverted to the schoolmaster he once was, patiently translating the clues into a language I could understand.” That is what he does in this text.

Cracking Cryptic crosswords is the ideal book for someone who would like to make the leap from regular general knowledge crosswords to the cryptic variety. In direct language, each of the types of clue is explained with straight-forward examples.

After twelve chapters dealing with anagrams, homophones, additions and subtractions, double definitions and all the basic tricks of the cryptic crossword compiler, Colin Dexter works through a ‘Crossword dedicated to Morse’ with his readers, then concludes his text with some crossword clue gems – his favourites.

This is a ‘must’ for you if you are longing to make your first steps in the world of cryptic crosswords.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.