Some personal details ...

Yes, I know this is headed 'personal details' but I'm not going to bore you with details of my family, my holidays, interests, the latest exploits of my cat (I don't own one) or my tastes in music, etc. That doesn't leave much, does it? So I'll just say that having retired from a wage-slave existence, I'm very happy to be getting paid for something I really enjoy doing. And, er ... that's it, really.

How I got to be a crossword setter ...

I started over 30 years ago, submitting entries to my local newspaper’s ‘Reader’s Crossword’ feature, on the assumption that ‘I could do better than that’. Eventually I got one accepted for the grand sum of £2. More acceptances followed plus the odd success in puzzle magazines. I was a runner-up in a crossword-setting competition run by Games & Puzzles mag. and waited for the big offers to come in ... and waited ... then I got my first personal computer ... a Sinclair ZX81 on which I wrote a crossword-creating program for myself – enlarged and enhanced shortly afterwards on a BBC ‘B’ 32K. This made grid completion less of a hassle and I was able to produce fairly professional-looking submissions. Better still, the program enabled me to create lists of themed words, searchable for matches when completing the grid. Specialist magazines (Film, Music, Art, etc.) became my target. Appropriately, it was a computer magazine, Acorn User that published what I regard as my first ‘proper’ crossword - i.e. one that brought in a decent fee! I should say that I now use Antony Lewis's commercial software, Crossword Compiler, an excellent aid to crossword construction - and it enables me to put puzzles (some of them interactive) on the web.

Who publishes my stuff now ...

With my wife's help, I'm published in the following: Accounting Technician, Artists & Illustrators, BBC Gardens Illustrated, BBC Countryfile, BBC History magazine, Countryman, Country Walking, Geographical, The Guardian (Brummie), Improve Your Coarse Fishing, One in Seven (RNID magazine), Private Eye,  Walk (Ramblers Assocn. magazine), What's Brewing (CAMRA's magazine) and What Investment   and on the web ... Chambers Online   - monthly puzzle: difficult cryptic based on The Chambers Dictionary Music Room - prize puzzles (Pop alternates with Classical).