Across or down, joy is the word

If you love solving cross-words, you know how it feels to be in the fraternity. There's the rush of matching wits with a mysterious puzzle-maker, the thrill of nailing an elusive answer and the satisfaction of filling in the final square.

There's a charm in playing the game, a charm that can be hard to describe. But Alan Connor, a British quizmaster who writes a column on cross-words for the Guardian newspaper, is more than up to the challenge.

Connor is the author of The Crossword Century: 100 Years of Witty Wordplay, Ingenious Puzzles, and Linguistic Mischief. The book details the history and evolution of crosswords since the first one appeared in 1913. But what makes it such a fun read is Connor's evident passion for all things crossword.