Customer Reviews
Really helpful approach and FUN! - By: , 03 Apr 2003 
I have been doing quick crosswords for years & although I was beginning to find them a bit simple I had always thought the cryptic ones too daunting, & all my previous attempts to learn had failedin confusion & disillusionment... but I decided to give them another go, using this book to start. What i really appreciated is that she weans you from quick crosswords onto the different sorts of cryptic clues one at a time, so that you can use the skills you already have to build on, & to verify your own progress. This book was really helpful & suited perfectly to someone who enjoys quick crosswords already, as you can enjoy the achievement of the example crosswords using many of the skills you already have, rather than spending ages staring at the page getting baffled & dissillusioned without really knowing where to start(which had been my previous experience of trying to learn cryptic technique.) An excellent gap-bridger.
Lots of example crosswords too, (30 altogether) & all with well explained answersin the back (an absolute must to have the explanation as well as the answer to every single clue if you're trying to learn, by the way- something to look out for!) It also contains a few "word banks" of commonly occuring oddities peculiar to cryptic crossword solving- again, worth looking out forin other books.
Will help crossword beginners - By: , 01 Oct 2001 
This book is an introduction to completing cryptic crosswords, with special reference to the Daily Telegraph's (one of the more tractable). All the different types of clue are explained & illustrated, & there are special crosswords for you to practise on, where the types of clue are flagged. As ever, I'd have liked more examples, & more on the approach to take when tackling a crossword, & as yet I still haven't managed more than half a crossword - but that's more than a couple of weeks ago...it's a bargain.
