Over 12 million Britons do a crossword on a weekly basis (Image: Getty Images)
More than 100 years ago the first crossword to appear in a British newspaper was printed on the pages of the Sunday Express. Tucked inside an advertisement for Selfridges, the numbered word grid puzzle – based on the first modern crossword created by Liverpudlian Arthur Wynne – delighted and infuriated readers in equal measure. A national obsession was born. Ever since that day, millions have scratched their heads, deliberated aloud and chewed the ends off of pencils in search of the right answers. But what of the puzzlemasters? How do they compile their intricate grids of white and black squares?
Marc Breman is one such setter or “cruciverbalist”, a term coined from the Latin words for “cross” and “word”. An undoubted puzzle grandmaster, the 64-year-old has compiled the Express’s famous Crusader Crossword for 20 years.
Aside from being a puzzle fiend, Marc is an author, playwright, musician and composer who lives in Belsize Park, north London with his wife Carol. And he only became a crossword compiler by chance 30 years ago.
“I got a job as a proof reader at the Press Association and one of their main compilers got head-hunted and in desperation they asked me if I could write puzzles,” he tells the Express. “I needed a job so I said ‘yes’. I didn’t even take English A level and I dropped out of university because it wasn’t for me but I had always been a big reader and loved words.”
Arthur Wynne, editor and inventor of the crossword puzzle (Image: Bettmann Archive)
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Marc Breman compiles the Daily Express’s Crusader Crossword (Image: Supplied)
Growing up Marc loved The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, the classic children’s book, jam-packed with clever word play. It helped form his natural ability to set crosswords today.
“People imagine I agonise over clues for days but it is a job of work,” he smiles. “I fill in the word grid and usually the clues come pretty quickly. Occasionally I might repeat myself. When I check back I see that I have written exactly the same clue before but that’s how my brain works.”
A decade ago he decided to make “the hardest puzzle I could, just for fun” on his own website. “It was clearly not the world’s hardest puzzle, although annoyingly it was sold that way – it was just the hardest puzzle I could make,” he laughs. “However it was only a matter of hours before the first correct solutions came in. Nearly a week later, 32 people had sent in completed grids. Even the ones who told me that it was ‘hardly the hardest’ still had fun and thanked me for it.”
It is still available to try today on Marc’s website marcbreman.london/benchmarc/
While most of his work comes from writing these days – he is currently co-writing a series of farces for the stage – Marc adores setting brainteasers for the loyal readers of the Express. “I do still really enjoy doing the Crusader after all these years,” he says. “When I first started it I was told to make it really difficult but then they got back to me and said ‘er, not that difficult’.”
What’s the cryptic clue he’s most proud to have written? “Slip came off and decorum initially was lost, 9 letters” (Misplaced),” he beams.
Marc, who toured with the likes of Elton John and Donovan in his younger years as a professional guitarist with the band The Stargazers, doesn’t worry artificial intelligence will take his last two remaining national newspaper crosswords from him.
“As far as straight puzzles go, there is already software that completes a grid, clues and all, within seconds,” he ponders. “It’s possible that someone will come up with software that approximates cryptic clues sufficiently closely for newspaper editors to consider it.“But with cryptic crosswords I can’t see AI being able to manage the humour which is injected into it.”
Hattie French, a sub-editor at PA Puzzles. inherited her love of crosswords from her father (Image: Mirror picdesk)
Crossword setter and mum-of-two Nicola Quinton from Weston-Super-Mare (Image: Supplied)
That’s true – it’s hard to imagine AI writing the clue, “Bar of soap, 6, 6” (Rovers Return) for example. “I love that one,” Marc says, “but unfortunately I can’t claim it as one of mine.”
While being a crossword compiler is, in his words, “a desperately solitary occupation”, he is not alone in the field. Hattie French compiles the Sunday Express Pub Quiz, the Daily Express small crosswords and Make You Very Crossword. The 40-year-old also checks the Crusader crosswords compiled by Marc.
A former online business directory manager, Hattie got her job after answering an advert for puzzles sub-editor in 2019. “My dad taught me to do cryptic crosswords when I was 10 and I have always loved puzzles, quizzes and word searches,” she says. “I didn’t realise though that what was a hobby could be an actual dream job for me.”
Hattie is one of 20 people employed by the puzzles department at PA Media in Bristol. On work nights out, she laughs that she and colleagues make “a ferocious pub quiz team. The swathes of trivia we know between us!”.
While Hattie enjoys total job satisfaction, she has to ensure she is always alert and on form. “You have to focus and concentrate but we have systems in place to make sure mistakes are not made and there is no repetition,” she explains.
Nicola Quinton has compiled the Sunday Express Jumbo General Knowledge Crossword since 2007. The mum-of-two from Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, succeeded the role from legendary Sunday Express puzzles page compiler Valerie Lockwood who worked well into her 80s.
“I use the same four grids on rotation that Valerie used,” outlines Nicola of her approach. “She had a very specific style and was very wordy, which I have changed over the years.”
Like Marc, Nicola, an English graduate, fell into puzzle writing by chance after starting at a press agency as a sub-editor.
She admits the internet has speeded up research of general knowledge questions but she never uses software to populate grids. She starts her grid by always filling in the longest word first.
“You definitely tell the difference between an AI generated quiz and a human one,” Nicola continues.“Compilers consider the people who write cryptic crosswords as the rockstars of crossword setting. They appeal more to the older generation, possibly as they have more time.
“Younger people prefer quicker games on their phones, playing puzzles digitally, but as long as people are still enjoying crosswords I am happy to keep writing them.” And so are we.