Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8)

8vo. Pp. x, 173, [1 (blank)]. Pictorial wraps. Notes.

A personal reminiscence and a guide to solving crossword puzzles. Each chapter starts with a cryptic clue and uses anecdote, history and autobiography to solve it, in the process illuminating a very British obsession. Readers encounter "The Best Crossword Clue Ever", "The Most Beautiful Clue in the World" and the eccentric personalities behind such legendary compilers as The Guardian's Araucaria and The Times's Ximenes.

"A little gem of a memoir... The book adds up to more than a sum of its parts and lingers in the memory long after the final page." –Val Gilbert, Sunday Telegraph