Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary

Anne Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary would be my first choice, along with Chambers, to take on my desert island. It is a most dependable source of inspiration for the crossword solver.For the past forty years Anne Bradford has been scrutinising every puzzle that she has encountered. She has broken down the clues into definitions and cryptic definitions and has carefully recorded and stored all the words, including those that indicate anagrams, reversals and puns. It is for this reason that this volume is so valuable in decoding the cryptic clue. Even the most obscure word can be found under its every day definition. If you are searching your memory for a word meaning fidget, for example, just look it up and she gives you: fantad, fanteeg, fantigue, fantod, fike, fuss, fyke, jimjams, jittery, niggle, trifle, twaddle, twitch and uneasy. Word-length, crossing letters and subsidiary indications do the rest. If you are looking for a fish she gives you two pages of them!I have found that this book makes solving the most difficult puzzle (including those of Ximenes and Azed) an easy task. It is undoubtedly the best of the solving aids available and I have no hesitation in recommending it to débutante solvers. The experts already have it on their bookshelves!

Anne Bradford has used her 40 years of crossword solving and setting to produce an essential aid for the crossword fan. She has examined every cryptic clue that she has tackled over these years and has compiled a dictionary that includes even the most obscure references. I find that this book can half my solving time and, when creating puzzles, it is a magnificent thesaurus. I can certainly say that this is the best crossword dictionary available.