Two Girls, One On Each Knee (7) (by Alan Connor)

• 2013 edition.  303 pages
• Published by Penguin Group
• Hardcover with dust jacket.  Green boards
• New Book.

The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword.  Indexed.

On 21 December 2013, the crossword puzzle will be 100 years old.  In the century since its birth, it has evolved into the world's most popular intellectual pastime.  In Two Girls, One on Each Knee, Alan Connor celebrates the wit, ingenuity and frustration of this addictive sport and how it has grown.

The story of the crossword takes us from the beaches of D-Day to the banks of the river Neva, via Fleet Street and the Old Bailey.  It involves the most fiendish setters, such as Torquemada and Ximenes;  famous fans (both real and imaginary) from P.G. Wodehouse to Frank Sinatra, Inspector Morse to Reggie Perrin.

You'll discover how crosswords have featured in films such as Brief Encounter and songs by Madness and Ian Dury;  how they intersect with espionage, jokes, class and morality;  and how they reflect back how our language and behaviour has changed over the last century.

You'll also discover how listening to white noise can help you do a crossword, why you should start in the bottom right-hand corner, and why cryptic crosswords are actually easier than quick (honestly).

This is a book about language and how we use it, twisting and transforming it through cryptic clues before it resolves, with a bit of luck, into an answer.  Where else would you find words such as Intussuscept, Obtemperate, Zibet and Raisiny? 

• What horror writer could do the Times crossword in the time it took to boil an egg?
• Which famous fan starts each day with the Telegraph crossword and kippers?
• What connects Bietchley Park and the Daily Telegraph?
• How have crosswords helped international relations, caused a strike by weiders, become embroiled with espionage and even caused a moral panic?