100 Years of the Crossword – 4 days left

There’s still time (4 days) to catch Radio 4’s hour-long programme celebrating 100 years of the cryptic crossword:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p2wd0

Lots of interesting material including interviews with Ruth Crisp (Crispa), John Graham (Araucaria) and former Telegraph crossword editor Val Gilbert. My own take? Well, it contains plenty of fascinating insights and was certainly an enjoyable listen but, for me, seems to end the story at a point 20-30 years ago. It may be that most Radio 4 listeners stopped remembering stuff around that time, but really… it would have been nice to hear about where the cryptic crossword is at right now. Contemporary – and highly influential – setters such as John Halpern, John Henderson etc don’t get a look in, which is a shame.

2013 is when our celebrations will be in full swing, so let’s hope the new year will see the modern cryptic crossword covered more extensively.

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