Quiz your family at home with crosswords, puzzles and games. Expert crossword solver and setter, Tim Moorey, seeks to dispel the myth that cryptic crosswords are the preserve of the elite. In this new, easy guide, he demonstrates that anyone who enjoys words and word play can learn to solve a cryptic crossword clue.

Are you baffled by cryptic crosswords? Do you want to increase your word power and exercise your brain, but can't always make any sense of the clues? This book is packed with all the know-how, hints and tricks you will ever need to help you find the right answers every time. From clever to cunning to downright devious, all the different types of clue are here, with tips on how to recognise them, interpret them and, of course, solve them! Not only is doing crossword puzzles a great recessionary hobby because it costs very little to pursue, but solving a daily puzzle is good for your health: it has been shown to help reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's, or at least delay its onset. With around one hundred and fifty clues analysed and explained in full, you will soon be on your way to the satisfaction of completing your first crossword grid; impressing your family, friends and fellow commuters; and maybe even winning a prize!

Have you always wondered how to do a cryptic crossword? Solving one maybe easier than you think thanks to this book. The Telegraph's Puzzle Editor, Chris Lancaster, shows how to crack cryptic crosswords in an easy-to-follow way. This simple-to-use guide will help you solve any cryptic crossword, whether you're a complete beginner or a puzzler seeking to expand your knowledge. This book features: - Explanations of the common clue devices, including double definitions, hidden clues, charades, subtractions, homophones and container-and-contents clues - Work-throughs of practice crosswords - Tips for spotting each variety of clue - The top 10 solving tips you need to know - Advice on reference materials and taking your puzzling to the next level - Chris's top-12 solving tips - Appendices of useful lists including single-letter abbreviations and a glossary of common 'crosswordese' Whether you're a novice or an inveterate puzzle lover, this is the perfect crossword solving guide for all.

The cryptic crossword world explained the fun and easy way Even expert crossword-solvers struggle with cryptics. The clues can often seem nonsensical, mysterious and infuriating, but finally cracking them is immensely satisfying. Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies is designed to help even the most casual crossword lover master these mental feats of gymnastics. Packed with clear explanations, helpful hints, and practice crosswords, the book explains how to approach these problems in a clear and logical manner, providing hints on identifying the different kinds of clues and tips on how to solve them. Explains cryptic crosswords, from the (relatively) simple to advanced puzzles Guides readers through common and not-so-common clues to help decipher even the most confusing cryptics Illustrates the top tips, tricks, and clues to cracking any cryptic Includes practice puzzles to put your new skills to the test Covers both Commonwealth and U.S. style cryptics and highlights the subtle differences between each Cryptic crosswords have emerged as one of today's most popular brainteasers, and Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies is the one-stop resource for becoming a puzzle pro.

Owing to the ever-increasing possibilities of communication, especially with the advent of modern communication technologies, register analysis offers a constantly widening range of research opportunities. Still, research has mainly concentrated on well-established and frequent registers such as newspaper articles, while many descriptive and theoretical issues have not yet been sufficiently investigated. This volume gives a state-of-the-art insight into register studies and points out emerging trends as well as new directions for future research. Furthermore, it provides a forum for the description and discussion of registers which have not received an appropriate amount of attention so far. In particular, it deals with specialized offline and online registers, cross-register comparison as well as regional, contrastive, and diachronic register variation. In parallel to the new discipline of variational pragmatics, this volume aims to foster the discipline of ‘variational text linguistics’ and to initiate fundamental investigations in this area. This field of research provides new insights into the concept of register, since it covers both functional and regional types of textual variation.

A witty and fast-moving tale of treachery and ambition centred on a rare musical manuscript, set in the medieval past and the present day.

This title offers hundreds of examples to illustrate how crossword clues work and helps readers understand how crosswords are created and how to interpret the clues.

What is a writer’s responsibility when it comes to tax? What legal implications should writers be aware of? What records should writers maintain, and what’s the best way of doing that? How do you cope with rejection or those crises of confidence that we all have from time to time? When is a pseudonym necessary? How can you improve your productivity? These, and many more, questions are answered in this collection of articles, first published in Writing Magazine. More than 50 professional writers, some of whom have appeared on the bestseller lists in the UK, or the New York Times and USA Today, share their tips and advice for making the most of your writing business. Contributors include: David Allen, Michael Allen, Judith Allnatt, Sarah Banham, Vicki Beeby, Louise Bolotin, Emily Bullock, Diana Cambridge, Alison Chisholm, Wendy Clarke, Marvin Close, Patsy Collins, Catherine Cooper, Nicholas Corder, Judith Cranswick, Dave Cullen, Nick Daws, Penny Ellis, Elaine Everest, Emma Finlayson-Palmer, Catherine Fitzsimons, Patrick Forsyth, Jean Fullerton, Della Galton, Alex Gazzola, Vanessa Gebbie, Vivien Hampshire, Solange Hando, David Hewson, Sally Jenkins, Sue Johnson, Susie Kearley, Jane Keightley, Natalie Kleinman, Yvonne Sarah Lewis, Kate Long, Anita Loughrey, Lorraine Mace, Adrian Magson, Kathleen McGurl, Eve Menezes-Cunningham, Tarja Moles, Christopher Owen, Joanna Penn, Diane Perry, Joanne Phillips, Julie Phillips, Kate Pool, Pat Posner, Jacqueline Pye, Sally Quilford, Jane Redfern-Jones, Suzanne Ruthven, Glynis Scrivens, Jane Smith, Jonathan Telfer, Paula Williams and Diane Wordsworth.

Two Girls, One on Each Knee: A History of Cryptic Crosswords is an audaciously constructed book on the pleasures and puzzles of cryptic crosswords and their linguistic wordplay, from Alan Connor, the Guardian's writer on crosswords On 21 December 2013, the crossword puzzle will be 100 years old. In the century since, it has evolved into the world's most popular intellectual pastime: a unique form of wordplay, the codes and conventions of which are open to anyone masochistic enough to get addicted. In Two Girls, One on Each Knee, Alan Connor celebrates the wit, ingenuity and frustration of setting and solving puzzles. From the beaches of D-Day to the imaginary worlds of three-dimensional puzzles, to the British school teachers and journalists who turned the form into the fiendish sport it is today, encompassing the most challenging clues, particular tricks, the world's greatest setters and famous solvers, PG Wodehouse and the torturers of the Spanish Inquisition, this is an ingenious book for lovers of this very particular form of wordplay. Note: The book begins with a puzzle in a standard 15-by-15 grid which incorporates all the basic clue types. The answers are also the chapter titles. Alan Connor writes twice-weekly about crosswords for the Guardian. He has contributed pieces about language for the BBC and the Guardian and works in radio and television, writing for Charlie Brooker, Caitlin Moran and Sue Perkins. His most recent writing was A Young Doctor's Notebook, a TV adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov stories starring Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm.

A WARREN OF WEIRD AND WONDERFUL FACTS AND TALES RESCUED FROM OBSCURITY Gift the first trivia book from the team behind the hit history podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives, investigating the provenance of historical objects, real and metaphorical, with intelligence and humour 'Compulsively dip-in-able' The Times ---- Ever fallen down a rabbit hole? Ever got lost chasing a fact, a hunch or a curious piece of cultural ephemera? Then the Rabbit Hole Detectives – Richard Coles, Cat Jarman and Charles Spencer – are here to do the burrowing for you. Why were eight WWII Hurricane fighter planes buried in Ukraine? What have chimpanzees to do with the invention of toilet paper? How many dynamite sticks should not be used to blow up a whale? Which ancient civilisation liked a short tongue and a shaved head? Written to accompany the unforgettable hit podcast, The Rabbit Hole Book follows Richard, Cat and Charles as they investigate and elucidate weird and wonderful curiosities from history, telling stories that are as often dumbfounding as they are gripping, as unexpected as they are hilarious or deeply moving. What are you waiting for? Welcome to the warren . . . Whatever you think you know, guess again.