53 years ago, when TV’s were B&W and a teacher’s monthly
salary was £59 – I still have a pay slip! – a friend invited me on a Scottish
walking/climbing holiday, him, me and five girls. Perfect! Cometh the hour, I
arrived at our meetup in York to find not five girls but just one, his
girlfriend! The thought of discretely looking the other way for two whole weeks
took all the shine off any glories the Highlands might have to offer. The girl
friend had an idea, she phoned a friend, who agreed to join us in Fort William.
Problem solved, second girl on her way. During the hours of sitting together in
a Morris 1100 travelling up the Scottish west coast, the four of us battled our
way through the Guardian cryptic crossword. No. 12,111 – I still have that too.
Clue 22A was very apposite, “Time soon modifies feelings” (8) Ans: “Emotions”
(can you see why?). My feelings were soon modified, emotions kicked in and
Reader, I married her.
Which brings me to “Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8)”, by
Sandy Balfour. – a memoir of love, identity, and crosswords. He tells the
story of how he and his girlfriend hitchhiked from South Africa to England in
1983 and of his subsequent life as a filmmaker and journalist. It is also a
love letter to the art of the cryptic crossword which he and his girlfriend discovered together.
Don’t let the thought of “difficult” crosswords put you off reading this short,
delightful book. Yes, we meet lots of clues (answers all given, either in the
text or appendix) and we learn how the cryptic clue works and the inside
stories of some of the setters, but there is far more to the book than this. Sandy
Balfour takes us on his very personal journey with anecdote, humour and a
lightness of touch that carries the reader along. Here is a sample:
“New Year's Day 1990. My girlfriend and I have taken the
first steps towards creating a home in London by buying part of a house near
Arsenal Football Club. She is attempting to teach me the basics of crosswords. "Take
'Pretty girl in crimson rose'," she says. "Eight letters. What does
it mean?" "It means," she continues, "that we have a pretty
girl and she is wearing something red, or pink. She is wearing something that
suits her prettiness. Prettiness, girls, roses - they all go together." I
nod. "Got it," I say. "It means," says my girlfriend,
"nothing of the sort." I nod again and smile encouragingly. I am
keeping up. "That" she says, "is what they want you to think it
means. What it actually means is either the first word or the last word. What
it actually means is 'rose'."
If you like word play and the idiosyncrasies of the English
language and are intrigued by or take delight in cryptic crosswords, you will
enjoy keeping company with Sandy and his wife, always endearingly referred to
as his girlfriend, as he takes you on their personal journey, and his life as a
film maker in the turbulent 80’s and 90’s.
'An extraordinary memoir... a positive page turner... A
mesh of journeys and destinations, politics and romance, it touches what is
beyond words.' Sophie Ratcliffe, The Times
My girlfriend and I still do crosswords together, not always
solving them but always taking delight in clever clues. Here are a few:
a. Picture of girl kept by her parents (8)
b. Group fixed stage scenery to mount sequence of songs (3) The answer is clued five times by a word that has 364 different meanings and takes most pages to define in the OED
c. Potty train (4)
d. Two girls one on each knee (8) - Title of another book about crosswords. By Alan Connor
Title: rebelled. Red is crimson. Pretty girl is belle
and it is IN red. Rebelled means rose as in, the people rose up in protest.
Emotions is an anagram of “time soon”
a. Panorama b. Set – It can mean, group, fixed, scenery, to mount, sequence of songs
c. Loco, d. Patella
