2005-04-06 Good book, but watch out for some tricky puzzles

The presentation can't be faulted (so much easier to idly jot answers on the sofa when you're holding a hardback!) and the 'once a decade' sections of material about things like the puzzle's setters and editors are interesting.

But the use of one puzzle per year shows just how much this puzzle has changed over the years. I'm supposed to be very good at this game, but there are some puzzles in the first couple of decades where I'm stumped by many of the clues. Perhaps the best method is to start at the back of the book and travel gradually backwards in time, so that you begin with puzzles of a more familiar style.