A treat to test-solve.
Inside Inside No 9 | BBC Sounds
More detail than you could reasonably expect on Inside No 9’s Riddle of the Sphinx and Two Girls, One on Each Knee …
… in this podcast episode.
Coronavirus, One Year On | Twitter
To help sort my own memories, I’m going to try a daily post of something from a year ago, as a thread.
Thursday Murder Club Quiz
I also recommend Richard’s book.
You can get the quizzes by subscribing to this newsletter. My own new book is The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book.
Support for solvers | The Guardian
Two new features in my Guardian column. Recommendations for remote activities, and a collaborative playlist of music recorded under current conditions:
Becoming You | Apple TV
A long time in the making. There is something extraordinary in every episode.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm | Amazon
“Additional material”, written before the substantial Covid elements, for this, released on 23 October.
Richard Osman’s House of Games | BBC2
Series four starts on 12 October. Happily (for me), the question-editor bit of production preceded … the Unpleasantness.
See also: my book for Penguin, The Joy of Quiz. And, to a lesser extent, the official spin-off book.
Crossword column | The Guardian
An unusual honour: featuring in The Antidote: the ‘list of non-coronavirus [Guardian] articles our readers spent the most time with’.
Attention should pass to St Christopher’s hospice in Sydenham.
Jam On It | Podcast
Since the mid-’90s, my friend Pandora and I have been planning a music- and ingredient-themed experience where the listener cooks along in real time. It’s finally here, as an unofficial podcast. Get involved.
How to solve Cryptic Crosswords during Coronavirus
Looking for a distracting hobby that takes a chunk of time?
Maybe one with a bottomless supply that you can access without going out into the world?
But you find cryptic crosswords baffling?
Here’s a selection of understandable explainers from the Guardian (if you prefer, your local bookshop can get my book for you).
And another thing: crosswords are best learned with a friend or family member. Beginner-friendly puzzles: Observer Everyman; Guardian quiptic; Telegraph; Times2.
Cryptic devices
Right, these are the bits of business like anagrams that you find in cryptic clues: hidden answers; double definitions; soundalikes; initial letters; spoonerisms; Cockney rhyming slang; containers; reversals; alternate letters; cycling; stuttering; taking most of a word; making a word naked; first & last letters …
Bits and bobs
You also come across abbreviations and whatnot: Roman numerals; Nato alphabet; Greek letters; chemistry; abbreviations for countries; points of the compass; playing cards; capital letters; apostrophes; cricket; alcohol; the church; drugs; music; animals; cars; cities; rivers; when the setter’s name appears; when the solver appears; royals; newspapers; doctors …
Individual letters
A surreal set of “interviews” with the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L …
Top 10 Crosswords in Fiction
10: Brief Encounter
9: PG Wodehouse
8: The West Wing
7: Martin Amis
6: Madness’s Cardiac Arrest
5: Rubicon
4: Alan Plater
3: Inspector Morse
2: Lord Peter Wimsey
1: The Simpsons
Interviews with setters
What makes these people tick: Paul; Enigmatist; Anax; Tramp; Boatman; Arachne; Rufus; Shed; Puck; Pasquale; Morph; Orlando; Gordius; Audreus; Philistine; Otterden; Doc; Crucible; Picaroon; Nutmeg; Chifonie; Screw; Chalicea; Knut; Styx; Marc Breman; Azed; Navy; Smurf; Enocta; Vlad …
Random bits and bobs
100 years of crosswords; commentary from the Times Crossword Championship; rudeness; plagiarism; David Nobbs; Steve Pemberton …
- If you prefer quiz, there’s a book about that too
Inside No 9 | BBC2
You should watch this episode first …
… then listen to the podcast to discover my indirect association.
The book in question is The Joy of Quiz.
See also: The Riddle of the Sphinx
The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book | BBC Books
For every Shipping Forecast area, you find the places on the map indicated by various clues. Join the places to form the shapes of letters. Join the letters to form a sea shanty.
Out 5 November from your local bookshop / Penguin / Waterstones / Amazon etc.
It also gives a flavour of what it’s like to be in each of Dogger, Fisher, German Bight…
- BBC Books / Ebury Publishing
- ISBN: 9781785945106
- 240 pages; 216 x 135 mm
- Goodreads · LibraryThing
- Previously: Two Girls, One on Each Knee: The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword; The Joy of Quiz
