Product Description

Araucaria has been delighting and confounding cryptic crossword fans for almost 50 years. Now solvers can pit their wits against the master with 60 never-before-published jigsaw crosswords. Jigsaw crosswords are Araucaria’s own invention and are challenging cryptic crosswords where you first have to solve the clues and then fit the solutions into the grid (without the help of numbers).

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256733 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 186 pages

Review

'No compiler has given more pleasure to more people'

(Hugh Stephenson, The Guardian )

'The most infuriatingly ingenious setter working today'

(Ian Rankin )

About the Author

John Graham’s first published crossword puzzle appeared in the Manchester Guardian in 1958. He has set for The Guardian ever since, taking the pseudonym Araucaria, meaning 'monkey puzzle tree'. He also compiles crosswords for the Financial Times as Cinephile, and founded the crossword magazine 1 Across in 1984. He was awarded the MBE in 2005.

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Customer Reviews

Awful
These puzzles are awful mental torture, made worse by the tantalizing fact that the pain can be relieved by sneaking a look at the solutions, AKA cheating. Clues are not numbered: the answers have to be fitted jigsaw-wise in the grid by deduction. The earlier grids have a few letters pre-filled in to ward off utter despair. Later ones have letters around the periphery, but you have to solve elaborate cryptic clues to get them. The grid clues themselves never cease to amaze me with their ingenuity and originality. However, if you're a beginner, forget it! These puzzles are for mighty intellects like what I have got.