Description

• First Edition [Methuen & Co, London, 1966]; 176 pages; brown cloth, gold titling to spine, spine ends bumped, light offsetting, spotting on page block, concentrated at bottom corner, abrasion inside rear board, a very good copy; in like illustrated dustjacket, unclipped [bookseller stickers over original price], front flap creased, edges rubbed
• Derrick Somerset Macnutt was compiler of crosswords for The Observer under the pseudonym Ximenes, succeeding Edward Powys Mathers [Torquemada – creator of Cain’s Jawbone]
• This scarce book reveals the Ximenean process & remains both instructive & subject for conjecture amongst the crosswording fraternity
• Famous Ximenean followers include Stephen Sondheim, PG Wodehouse & Leonard Bernstein