Very sad news — we learnt today of the recent death of John Harrington, the wonderful setter Schadenfreude. Editors and other contacts were becoming increasingly concerned that no one had heard from him, so today we got in touch with the local police. They called back to tell us, very sympathetically, that he has died and that next of kin have been informed.
Unfortunately, the police are not empowered to pass on any more information, so that’s all we can tell you. John was socially reclusive (though a great communicator via his brilliant puzzles) and we know very little of his personal circumstances. If we hear any more, we will share it.
That’s an unhappy shock. You could always turn to a Schadenfreude or Oxymoron puzzle and know you were in for a solid chunk of cruciverbal entertainment. He will be very much missed.
We are so sorry to hear the news. We commented on his last puzzle – keep the coming. His crosswords were always so enjoyable, superbly constructed and well clued. We will miss our regular fix.
Sad news.
Sympathies to his family and friends and to all in this crossword family who knew him only as a sly, gifted and witty setter.
R.I.P.
Sad news indeed. I admire Schadenfreude’s Inquisitor puzzles, the most recent of which was published less than two weeks ago, and will miss them in the future. My sympathies to his family and friends.
[Apologies for the error in my name at the head of my comment @4.]
Terrible news. His Inquisitor of a few weeks back was one of the highlights of the IQ year to date. He’ll be missed.
My goodness, that is totally unexpected news. I am shocked. My deepest sympathy to his family and friends. He was a mainstay of the IQ, every one of his puzzles puzzles had quality baked in.
Very sad news. Puzzles, clues and themes, always totally bullet-proof. He will be much missed.
Schadenfreude was one of the very best setters of advanced puzzles. He will be missed by his solvers, but more importantly by his loved ones. My condolences to them.
Terribly sad news, and condolences to his family and friends. I never met John, but I feel like I have lost an old friend.
Hopefully the IQ and EV editors have a few more Schadenfreude/Oxymoron puzzles in the pipeline that can keep us entertained in the next few months.
That is very sad indeed. His puzzles in the Cambridge alumni magazine were great – a couple of days or more of solid work, usually – and he was inventive and humane. He has a solid place in CW history.
So sorry to hear this news. Without question my favourite setter of advanced puzzles for the sheer consistency of his output over the years. When I saw his name above a puzzle I knew that I would face a tough but fair test with excellent clues and an ingenious and unambiguous endgame and, most importantly, that I would enjoy every stage of the solve. I am sure I will not be the only regular Inquisitor solver who every seven or eight weeks picked up the paper and thought “we must be due a Schadenfreude”. He will be greatly missed by many solvers.
Terrible news. I was a relatively recent convert to the joys of a Schadenfreude puzzle. When starting out with solving Inquisitors (and very occasionally, the Listener) I decided that his were too difficult for me and typically gave up without giving them a proper go. I can’t remember the point where I dropped this belief (probably 2 or 3 years ago) but I’m glad that I did. His ‘Toppers’ puzzle featuring GB gold medal winners was tremendous. As others have said, a consistently excellent setter who will be greatly missed.
Very sad news. A brilliant compiler of devious puzzles. He may of been a man of solitude but his conundrums entertained many.
I wasn’t aware of this until I read the editor’s note accompanying today’s Inquisitor.
As anyone who’s read any of my blogs will know, he was my favourite setter and I sincerely hope that I get a chance to blog one of his remaining Inquisitors this year.
What sad news – RIP JOHN HARRINGTON and thanks very much for all the enjoyment.
I was reminded afresh of the gap left by Schadenfraude’s sad death by seeing the new issue (86) of the Cambridge alumni magazine, CAM: like Alan@11, I knew him primarily from that. His Instructions were sometimes off-puttingly complicated, and once even got him into Private Eye’s Pseud’s Corner, but it was worth persevering: after lazily skipping a few, I engaged properly with the new one and struggled through (I think) successfully – it’s a superb composition, and a good one to remember him by, unless there are stockpiled ones to come – let’s hope that there are. Echoing kenmac above, RIP and sincere thanks indeed.
I have only just learnt the sad news of John’s death from the notice in the latest issue of CAM magazine. I had known John for 35 years, having first met him when he interviewed me for a software development role at Plessey Radar in Tolworth. We went on to work together intermittently at Plessey, Siemens-Plessey then Airsys ATM for the next 15 years. John was always a private person though, and it was only after I had known him for ten years that we discovered our shared interest in advanced cryptic crosswords. That happened when I came back in to work after the Christmas break to find John hunched over his desk scratching his head over Dimitry’s infamous New Year’s Resolution. He had found the first solution but was baffled about what to do next. Between us we discovered the second and third resolutions and thus was born a weekly Monday morning ritual of dissecting the weekend’s Listener. John was always the better solver however and it was usually a case of him explaining things to me rather than the other way round. When John later took his first steps into compiling, he would run his puzzles past me for comment and it was obvious from the beginning that his puzzles were touched with genius, displaying a mastery of grid construction and a clueing style which was the epitome of correctness, precision and concision with the necessary leavening of misleading ambiguity. Our weekly discussions ended when John took early retirement and in his inimitable way, he managed to keep his departure a secret from everyone until just a week before leaving to avoid any fuss. Although in later years John described himself to me as a recluse (only half-jokingly!) he could be very entertaining in private company but clearly did not enjoy social gatherings. He was also an extremely fit and keen runner and squash player – no one at work, myself included, would ever challenge him to a return friendly squash match in the certain knowledge of a thorough drubbing. I was not to meet John again after his retirement relocation to Cornwall, although we kept in touch via Christmas cards and crossword-related emails. He kept fit by running round the streets of Launceston, developed an interest in gardening, and enjoyed a glass of Romanee-Conti but otherwise I believe his time was consumed by solving and compiling crosswords for an expanding collection of publications, including Enigmatic Variations, Listener, CAM and the Civil Service magazine among others. He rang me once in a panic because he was on holiday and could not find a copy of the Saturday Times for his weekly Listener fix. Unfortunately I was out of the country on a business trip but he managed to persuade my wife to buy a copy of the Times, scan the puzzle and email it to him!. He would email me draft CAM puzzles for test-solving and review every few months (coming out only once a term) but I knew not to expect any contact in between and sadly my last contact was in February, shortly before he died. My knowledge of his earlier life is patchy. He took a degree in mathematics at the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham and spent all his working life in software development of radar and air traffic control systems. He had been married but was divorced and had no children or immediate family to my knowledge – a private man but one content with his life and interests. I have his last unpublished puzzle destined for CAM and will explore the possibility of having it published as it would be a fitting tribute to a brilliant setter who will be missed.