Puzzling

All too often it just seems impossible to find a way into a cryptic crossword. To help you make a start, and maybe even solve it all, here are my ...  Top Ten  Eleven Tips for Solvers Use a pencil and eraser, rather than pen. Read through all the clues before trying to solve any. You don't have to start with 1 Across! Mark in any multiple words or hyphenated words on the grid, with a dividing line drawn onto the grid (see the photo below). These are the clues where the letter number is something like (3-4) or (2,4,3). See if you can spot some anagram clues. Most cryptics will have at least a couple, and possibly many more. Read my blog post on anagrams to learn how to spot them. The longest words in the grid are often clued with anagrams, so check these clues carefully. Look for possible 'hidden word' clues, while some cryptics have none, there's usually 1 or 2 of these in an average grid. Here's my blog post on how to find and solve hidden word clu...