A Display of Lights (9): the Lives and Puzzles Telegraph's Six Greatest Cryptic Crossword Setters

The author of the extremely popular 2005 book, 80 Years of Cryptic Crosswords, the Daily Telegraph's resident crossword expert Val Gilbert returns with a book to delight crossword fanciers of every type. A Display of Lights (9)* is not just a collection of classic puzzles, it is also a history of the crossword itself and a joint biography of six of its most talented practitioners. Far from the closeted intellectuals you might expect, these puzzlers have had extraordinary lives, some tragic, some awe-inspiring; all are fascinating (one was arrested under suspicion of supplying secrets to the Nazis through his clues). Val Gilbert tells the life story of each alongside an explanation of what makes their clues so fiendishly rewarding, and ends each chapter with a selection of the greatest puzzles from across their career. A Display of Lights (9) is two books in one - a great read in its own right, and a collection of some of the greatest crosswords of all time. It's the perfect gift for lovers of cryptic crosswords everywhere. *Answer: Crossword (a 'light' is a word for 'clue' in crossword parlance, so: a display of lights/display of clues/crossword)