Quirister

I learned to do crosswords from my parents, who also introduced me to choral singing and classical languages (they met in a choir while studying Classics / History at university). Perhaps not the most obvious background for an Engineering degree, but the language and problem-solving skills turned out to be useful for working as a technical author in the software industry. Meanwhile all the fun stuff (sewing, cooking and various crafts as well as the singing) gradually took over more of my time . . . so eventually I decided that 30 years’ working life was enough. I now do a range of different volunteer tasks and need a good diary to keep track of it all. As they say: once you retire, you wonder how you ever found time to go to work.

Everyman 3,845

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Everyman’s recent run of slightly harder puzzles continues – but it’s an enjoyable one. As usual some of the definitions involve a bit of lateral thinking, and the wordplay in 25a is not … Read more >>

Everyman 3,841

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Everyman’s distinctive style continues with another reasonably straightforward crossword. A good range of different clue constructions here, including a few examples of clue-as-definition (though I thought these were somewhat contrived; perhaps Everyman did … Read more >>

Independent 10,476 by Poins

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A reasonably straightforward puzzle, though with a few rather tricky constructions that took some working out. There’s only one really obscure word, at 14a, where the wordplay is clear enough to allow the … Read more >>

Everyman 3,837

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A reasonably straightforward puzzle from Everyman, who continues to deliver in a slightly quirky style that’s becoming familiar. As usual, the anagram indicators are inventive (not to say dubious in a couple of … Read more >>

Quiptic 1,065 by Carpathian

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Carpathian provides another classic example of a Quiptic on this somewhat non-standard Bank Holiday. Concise clues with some good surfaces; I liked the port-swilling uncle in 14a, the cleverly-misleading old drawing in 5d, … Read more >>

Everyman 3,833

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Perhaps a slightly trickier than usual Everyman this week. The Guardian crosswords blog is still recommending Everyman as a puzzle suitable for beginners. I’m not always convinced; some of the clues here are … Read more >>