Cryptics Uncrossed

How do we learn to do cryptic crosswords? Barbara Gettinby has the answers in her latest book Cryptic Crossword Secrets.

Most crossword compilers provide you with elusive clues and puzzle solvers are left scratching their heads as to 1. What the clue means, and 2. How was the answer arrived at?

Barbara Gettinby is the only crossword compiler to explain EVERY answer. Not only does she teach you how to solve cryptic crosswords but she also breaks down each answer so that you can see how it was arrived at.

Some of Barbara’s crosswords are easy cryptic crossword puzzles, perfect for the beginner crossword solver. Others are more advanced. If you are stuck on a cryptic clue, refer to the straight clue (offered on the same page). Still confused? Go to the back of the book and look up the cryptic solution. Each solution is fully explained. Here is an example of one of Barbara’s cryptic crossword clues and answers:

Cryptic Clue: Consumes the birds (8)Straight clue: Consumes

Solution: SWALLOWS

Solution Explained: Consumes (swallows) the birds (swallows)

Another example:

Cryptic Clue: Not dressed in homespun cladding (6)Straight clue: Not dressed

Solution: UNCLAD

Solution Explained: ‘Not dressed’ is the key definition‘In’ is the hidden indicator (ie the answer is hidden within the following clue, in this case “homespun cladding”)Homespun cladding is where the answer is hiding

Cryptic crossword puzzles may look like a foreign language to the uninitiated but Barbara Gettinby has taken the mystery out of cryptics by becoming the only cryptic compiler who fully explains each and every clue and this is the secret to learning how to solve cryptics.

Thank you, Barbara! At last someone has taken the time to not only teach us how to do cryptic crosswords but to explain how they arrived at the cryptic answers.

Cryptic Crossword Secrets – Where EVERY Answer is FULLY Explained