I Was a Tweenage Verbaholic

Words can be an endless source of both fun and frustration. Some of us are word junkies. Some see words within words: where we would simply see celebrate others see Crete and Elba, or holy and satanic in Stolichnaya. David Astle should know. He loves words and celebrates them on a daily basis. From an early age he lost his head in language and letters and succumbed to the thrill of wordplay. Words are his profession and he has been designing word puzzles and cryptic crosswords for twenty-five years. At this very moment someone, somewhere is chewing on their pencil cursing DA (as he is known in the trade)!

In I was a Tweenage Verbaholic David will examine and dissect his word brain for our benefit. His plan is to turn our brain strain into a reverie of words as he enlightens us about the secrets of cryptic crosswords and shows us how cryptic clues work. At the end of the book you’ll understand all of the tricks of the cryptic world and have learnt the joy of the ‘aha!’ moment.

• Year of Publication: 2010
• Genre: Non-Fiction
• Audience: Adult