Puzzling

I've just finished a once-in-a-lifetime index, for a book on the history of the crossword! I doubt such a perfect job will ever come along for me again (indexers usually index books on subjects they're familiar with). And I was asked to put cryptic clues and jokes into the index! This is  very rare, and was a huge amount of fun! I am mentioned in the text as a cryptic setter, so had the unusual situation (again, very  rare) of indexing my own name. A few of the sillier entries, to whet your appetite: sloppy teaching, see cheating [a 'sloppy' version (or anagram) of teaching is cheating] torturers, see setters victims, see solvers The book, Two Girls, One on Each Knee: The Puzzling Past of the Cryptic Crossword is by Alan Connor (who writes frequently for The Guardian  crossword blog ), and is being published by Penguin. It will be out in a few months' time, so keep an eye out for it. The book is very interesting and well-written, and actua...

My mother recently sent me the index I wrote to my extensive  Cricket magazine collection, which I created for my kids when they were little. I had completely forgotten I'd created it. I was in my 20s when I did this! All hand-written into an index book (with alphabet tags on the sides of the pages). I used symbols to indicate whether an entry was an article, recipe, activity etc. The numbers are (volume, issue) - no page number included. In 1982 I wrote an index for a microwave cookbook that didn't have one, for my future mother-in-law, when I was 18. And I didn't know indexing was a 'real profession' until a couple of years ago, just before I did my training! LOL