It was an appropriate choice given the devilish difficulty of many of the 'Torquemada' puzzles that ran in The Observer until Mathers' death in 1939. He established the principle, followed by many subsequent setters, of publishing under a pseudonym – in his case, the infamous 15th-Century Spanish Inquisition torturer 'Torquemada'. The first crosswords with purely cryptic clues appeared in the 1920s, pioneered by Edward Powys Mathers. Wikipedia lists nine different spellings, and meanings, just for words pronounced 'air'!" "This makes it especially well-suited to the wordplay and misdirection of cryptic crosswords. "English has far more words than many languages," says Helen Ougham, an expert solver who has twice won The Times National Crossword Championship. The breadth and fluidity of the language in which you're reading this article provides a vital springboard for cryptic crosswords. "It's a highly pleasurable kick which rewards the solver," says Friedlander. She calls this the Penny Drop Moment, from the old English expression for that 'Aha!' instant when you suddenly understand something that has been racking your brain. "Solvers experience a powerful insight moment when they realise how the clue should actually be interpreted," says Friedlander. "The solver has to work out which are relevant to any clue before actually solving it."Īnd three-quarters of solvers in her studies describe cryptic crosswords as a uniquely satisfying puzzle form. "Cryptic crosswords comprise a compendium of different types of brain teaser, so you get a lot of variety within each puzzle – anagram clues, acronym, puns and riddles," says Kathryn Friedlander, who does research in cryptics at the University of Buckingham's School of Psychology. In a TED talk at London's Royal Albert Hall in 2013, Halpern described them as a celebration of "the hidden magic within language". I see wordplay patterns in the street, on the bus, at parties."Ĭryptic crosswords uniquely combine creativity, knowledge and logic, with a plentiful dash of style and wit. Instead, my first thought was 'It's the word 'men' inside the word 'aria'. Most normal people would immediately think: 'Interesting – tell me something about Armenia'. "Instead I asked where the name came from. "When she told me her name, the first thing I thought was it's an anagram of 'entail' – though I didn't tell her that!" he reveals. Halpern tells me about the day he met his wife. When facing difficulties with puzzles or our website in general, feel free to drop us a message at the contact page.Let's begin a playful language journey with a dip into the mind of John Halpern, whose brain-teasing puzzles grace the UK's top newspapers under various pseudonyms.
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