Cryptics Uncrossed

Double dealings, hide and seek, back flips….sounds like a day in the Australian parliament but instead these are just a few of the cryptic crossword techniques revealed in a ‘how to’ hands-on book. Cryptic Crossword Secrets shows readers all the tricks and tips for mastering cryptic crosswords.

The first pages of the book are filled with examples of the ruses used by cryptic crossword compilers. These include similar sounding words, words that appear in reverse, abbreviations and some much-used devilish and dastardly decoys.

Once understanding some of the modus operandi of the crossword creator, readers are then encouraged to try their newfound skills. There are plenty of crosswords to practice on with 75 crosswords with both straight and cryptic clues.

If, even after the tips and straight clues, flashes of brilliance have not yet appeared, don’t despair. At the back of the book a unique set of solutions spells out exactly how every cryptic answer was arrived at.

Author of the book, Barbara Gettinby says once you‘ve got the idea of Cryptics it’s easy to get hooked. “A friend of mine first showed me how to do cryptic crosswords and I have been a fan ever since,” she said. “A lot of people say that they would like to do them but don’t know how. I hope this book will help – it is the only book I have found that fully explains each and every answer!”

“As a cryptic lover I found myself constantly asking, ‘How did they arrive at that answer?’ It was so frustrating not to be able to see the logic, so in the end I wrote an explanatory book myself”.

Cryptic Crossword Secrets is available in paperback from Amazon