Challenge yourself at home with word and number puzzles An updated edition from expert crossword setter and experienced tutor, Tim Moorey, including 24 brand-new annotated practice crosswords.

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.

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.

The cryptic crossword world...explained 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. Using worked examples and clear explanations, the book guides the reader through the common and not-so-common clues that can be used to decipher even the most confusing cryptics, and includes practice puzzles to put your new skills to the test. Introduces and explains cryptic crosswords, from the (relatively) simple to the advanced Illustrates the top tips, tricks, and clues to cracking any cryptic through worked examples Covers both Commonwealth and U.S.-style cryptics, and explains the subtle differences between them Provides plenty of practice crosswords for all levels of difficulty 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.

Put your cryptic-cracking skills to use! With over 50 puzzles and 1,750 clues for you to conquer, Cryptic Crossword Puzzles for Dummies is filled with cryptics that range from (relatively) simple to expert-level, along with brief explanations of the most common types of clues and helpful hints on how to solve them. Used on its own or as a companion to Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies, this book will keep your brain busy for hours! Apply the basics: use fundamental rules to solve puzzles Build your solving skills: practise consistently on various grid types Tackle pesky anagrams: decode anagram clues aplenty Use sums to find the answer: add and subtract letters to get the correct word Detect double definitions: answer hints with more than one meaning Explore hidden messages: become a master at uncovering unseen solutions

Master wordsmith and crossword guru David Astle shows how cryptic crosswords can boost your brain power and improve your memory and cognitive capacity. Recent studies have shown that puzzle-solving and wordplay are among the most effective ways to boost the power and agility of your brain. A cryptic crossword a day can help keep memory loss at bay. Why? The answer lies in the art of teasing out a clue, a discipline that calls for logic, interpretation, intuition and deduction as well as the ability to filter nuance and connotation. All these challenges and more are found in the cryptic crossword. And all are invaluable in increasing your brainpower and improving your memory and cognitive capacity. In this entertaining and essential book, cryptic crossword guru David Astle explains how your brain responds to and benefits from attempting these crosswords. A growing body of research suggests cryptic crosswords are the ideal workout for your brain, and Astle shows how regular training of this kind can be fun as well as fundamental. If you've always been intimidated by cryptic crosswords, fear not! Rewording the Brain is an accessible guide to developing and sharpening your puzzle talents. Novices and expert solvers alike will gain plenty of cryptic insights. There has never been a better time to start solving, nor a better teacher than the legendary DA. Also included are 50 cryptic crosswords hand-picked to keep your brain abuzz, ranging from beginner-friendly to fiendishly complicated!

I stopped off at the Peace Gardens - a memorial straddling the US-Canadian border commemorating 'Lasting Peace Between America and Canada', as if there had ever been a problem. Show me a garden commemorating Peace Between America and, say, Iraq and I'll be impressed. America is like a beauty contestant. It's gorgeous, until it opens its mouth.' From the similarities between US gun laws and British drinking hours, to what cryptic crosswords really tell us about the British psyche, American in London Rich Hall casts a keen eye on the lunatic contradictions and weird marvels of his native and adoptive homelands. 'Full of acute left-field reflections on America and Americans, plus some marvellously irreverent sketches ...wise, witty and strangely true' GUARDIAN

It’s summer 1999 and the members of the Hamilton-Kellaher clan are on their way to Daybreak, their family cottage on Lake Pemichangan, Quebec. With his newly minted driver’s licence, sixteen-year-old Connor drives his step-sister, Francis, and their chosen brother, Jesse, to the lake. Last fall, after learning that Jesse was homeless, dying from leukemia and in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, Connor had organized a donor drive at his school. To everyone’s amazement, his mother, Fiona, turned out to be a perfect match. Not just perfect, but a blood relation! As the young people forge stronger bonds, and Connor woos the U.S. Ambassador’s daughter next door, Fiona suspects Jesse’s late mother, who turned out to be her long-lost adopted sister, is also related to the local Algonquin First Nation. To prove the familial link, Fiona must unearth a family secret long hidden from her by her mother. As Fiona homes in on Jesse’s link to his Indigenous mother and her own adopted sister, all will learn that family is far more than just biology and DNA.

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.