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Two Girls, One on Each Knee :The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword

3.56 ( 327 Ratings by Goodreads)
Two Girls, One on Each Knee

Two Girls, One on Each Knee :The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword

(Author)
3.56 (327 Ratings by Goodreads)
paperback
Published: 5 June, 2014
Standard worldwide delivery by Thu, June 18 - Tue, June 23
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Condition: USED
$6.47
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Description

In the century since its birth, the crossword has evolved into the world's most popular intellectual pastime: a unique form of wordplay, the codes and conventions of which are open to anyone masochistic enough to get addicted. In Two Girls, One on Each Knee, Alan Connor celebrates the wit, ingenuity and frustration of setting and solving puzzles. From the beaches of D-Day to the imaginary worlds of three-dimensional crosswords, to the British school teachers and journalists who turned the form into the fiendish sport it is today, encompassing the most challenging clues, particular tricks, the world's greatest setters and famous solvers, PG Wodehouse and the torturers of the Spanish Inquisition, this is an ingenious book for lovers of this very particular form of wordplay.
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More Details

Type Book
ISBN13 9780141977102
ISBN10 0141977108
Number Of Pages 320
Item Weight 239 g
Product Dimensions 129 x 196 x 18 mm
Publisher / Reseller Penguin Books Ltd
Format paperback
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Media Reviews

Alan Connor's charming, fascinating history . . . is as elegantly sprinkled with surprising gems as the most satisfying crossword . . . thoroughly, consistently entertaining . . . In a single, gloriously decipherable chapter he lays out with perfect clarity the entire range of rules and devices through which cryptic clues work their magic * Sunday Times *
It is witty, charming, encyclopaedic and highly readable - and it can be read in any order. Take a chapter or a paragraph, a puzzle or a clue. In each the reader will find something to intrigue and delight. * Spectator *
Two Girls is a lovingly crafted little book, from the table of contents - where chapter titles are hidden in a crossword designed by the great Araucaria - to the index, which skips from "I give up, see frustration" via "primness in American crosswords", to finish with "zookeepers, beleaguered". * The Times *
A lovingly crafted little book . . . Connor's wry, good-natured tone and his commitment to the serious business of play make him the perfect guide to a great pastime as it approaches its 100th birthday * Daily Telegraph *
Connor writes with great flair . . . it is nice to dip in and out of his entertaining essays * Church Times *
An ideal stocking filler * Metro *
The brilliant new book on crosswords that delivers fun galore whether you're a doer or a duffer * Mail on Sunday *
There is something to entertain even the most infrequent dabbler * Financial Times *

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GoodReads Reviews

Author's Bio

Alan Connor has been the question editor for BBC2's Only Connect and Richard Osman's House of Games. He is the author of books for Pointless and The Traitors and is the puzzle consultant for the BBC1 drama Ludwig. He writes puzzles for various newspapers and has written for Charlie Brooker series and Have I Got News for You. His favourite quiz question is: What word was intentionally omitted from the screenplay of The Godfather?

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