The fascinating history

of Cryptic Crosswords

A talk by Angela Bell

The enduring
popularity of the
cryptic crossword
puzzle
Online crossword group on Zoom
The origins of
word puzzles
in Pompeii
THE SATOR SQUARE

SATOR
AREPO

“The sower TENET

OPERA
ROTAS
with his
plough holds “”

the wheels
with care.”
Exeter book
of riddles
Acrostic puzzles in Victorian times – the work of Lewis Carroll
The “Windsor Enigma” –
a puzzle by
Queen Victoria
Arthur
Wynne,
inventor of
the first
crossword

Picture credit:
www.sciencesource.com
 The early
days of the
Crossword
puzzle
Margaret Petherbridge,
crossword editor,
New York World.

Picture credit: www.newyorker.com

Crosswords
appear in UK
newspapers.
What the newspapers said …

•“A time waster” … “A menace”

… The Times of London.

•“A primitive sort of mental

exercise”. New York Times.

•“A fad, which will lower the tone

of the publication”.
Solving the clues
Solving the
clues
SCRABBLE –
the crossword
inspired board
game.
Crosswords in
popular fiction
Inspector
Morse and
Sergeant
Lewis

Picture credit: www.radiotimes.com

Crosswords
as plot
devices
in films
The Two Ronnies –
Crossword sketch
(1980)

Picture credit: www.youtube.com

Wordplay – a
documentary film
about crosswords
Picture credit: IMDb.com
 Recruiting
code breakers in
World War 2
The ‘Enigma’ Crossword
Art on the
London
Underground
Picture credit: www.serenakorda.com
Crosswords and
the
D Day landings
Ximenes – father of the Cryptic Crossword

Picture credit: www.crossword.org.uk

 Araucaria –
The Guardian
crossword
setter

Picture credit: en.Wikipedia.org

•

Araucaria - The monkey puzzle tree

A very long anagram
clue by Araucaria!

12 Across: Poetical scene with surprisingly

chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3,3,8, 12)

ANSWER: The Old Vicarage Grantchester.

Gender bias in cryptic crossword clues
Arachne aka
Sarah Hayes
The Knowledge
Psychology
and
crosswords
Making sense of
Cryptic
Crosswords
•Picture credit: www.bbc.co.uk
Picture credit: www.bbc.co.uk
Psychological research
into ‘super solvers’
Crossword
solving apps
 3 Dimensional
crossword grids

Picture credit:
www.3dcalendarpuzzles.co.uk
Picture credit:
www.3dcalendarpuzzles.co.uk
Talk created and presented by

Angela Bell