Tagged cryptic crosswords explained

Crossword Compiler Reveals her Secrets

Barbara Gettinby has been compiling cryptic crosswords for more than 20 years.

Frustrated when compilers would not reveal how they arrived at their answers, she decided to compile crosswords herself. Thus Finnegan’s Cryptic Crosswords was born. Finnegan’s Cryptic Crosswords solver was the first cryptic crossword book to contain all solutions fully explained. Barbara released 10 volumes in magazine format throughout newsagents in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

In 2005 Barbara released two books entitled Cryptics Made Easy, a blue and a purple edition (now out of print).
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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.

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