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Update 1 December 2012

December 1, 2012 By Phixwd Leave a Comment

The new material this fortnight is my first puzzle for the Church Times, dating from 1989.  I haven’t had time to add anything elsewhere, and the next puzzle update will also need quite a bit of time to prepare.  I do have my eye on the approaching Christmas holidays for expanding some thoughts on clueing.

Meanwhile I have acquired some mots croisés of Georges Perec.  Perec was a French writer associated with Oulipo, a group which (as that Wikipedia entry attests) explored various approaches to constrained writing techniques.  Perec himself produced a startling example in the novel translated as A Void – a book without the letter E (except, alas, in its authors name).  It is well worth seeking out in Gilbert Adair’s virtuoso translation, the paperback of which came with a suitably lipogrammatic blurb. I particularly recall the e-less version of Poe’s The Raven, done in the correct metre and with more than a touch of Poe’s rather grandiose style – but never a glimpse of the ‘black bird’ quoting ‘Nevermore’ of course.

Sadly my French isn’t even good enough to penetrate Perec’s introduction on the art of French crossword-setting without persistent recourse to Google translate so I doubt I shall be tackling many of the puzzles.  First clue in the book:

Elle ne se rase pas dans les fêtes foraines

French for ‘bearded lady’, I’d guess – but I’d be wrong (says he, checking the answer page).

The book is available from amazon.co.uk, and reasonably priced (you even get threepence off).

 

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About me

This is the website of Paul Henderson, who sets crosswords for The Independent (London) under the pseudonyms Phi, for the Daily Telegraph (London) under the pseudonym Kcit, and anonymously for The Times (London) amongst many other outlets. For a more detailed biography see the About Me page.

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