The Cryptic Pub Quiz by Frank Paul
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.
I do love a good quiz. One that has a balance of straightforward questions and some that you are sure that you know, but aren’t sure until you hear the answer. Sitting down to one of those where you struggle to comprehend what the question actually is, let alone what it is asking might be too much, but that is what the artist Frank Paul does on a regular basis at the Mill in Cambridge.
Since 2015, his cryptic quizzes have become legendary, full of anagrams, cryptic links, word searches and his amazing artistic creations. This book has collected some of his finest examples, including a Murder Mystery Advent Calendar of Doom, Eight Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Premature Obituaries, lots of palindromes and a Quizmas Carol.
Fiendish is an understatement.
I think his brain works in a totally different way to everyone else’s, but if you love quizzes and verbal puzzles then this should be an essential book for your collection. His unique combinations of quizzes and games along with his wonderful art and very original games will have you exasperated and stumped in roughly equal measures; what is satisfying when you know or have worked out the answer. If you’re still totally baffled, and I will admit I was on some of these.
Thankfully there are the answers in the back…
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