Meet the crossword setter, Phssthpok

As a daily deal with, each few months or so for nearly 30 years, the Monetary Instances has featured a puzzle by Phssthpok, whose identify comes from a novel known as Protector. Adam Sanitt has additionally set for the Instances and it’s time we met this setter.

Hi there Phssthpok.When did you get the crossword bug?
I spent many comfortable hours behind a lecture corridor with a newspaper balanced on my knee determining the right way to remedy the crossword. It was a few years earlier than I turned a proficient solver.

I recommended to the editor of the college newspaper that they need to begin a cryptic crossword and he kindly took an opportunity and gave me a weekly slot. After I final checked, it was nonetheless going.

Did you select your pseudonym regardless of or due to its ungainliness?
Might I take the chance to apologise for inflicting my pseudonym on generations of editors and solvers?

I admire it has induced consternation – to not point out fury – over time. In my defence, I used to be already utilizing Phssthpok as a pseudonym earlier than crosswords.

Within the early Eighties, as a youngster, I used to be concerned in a number of the precursors of the web: Prestel, Janet and different networks. It was felt to be a bonus to have an internet identify that – if you happen to solely noticed it fleetingly, as an entry on an entry log quickly scrolling previous, as an illustration – could be extraordinarily tough to recollect and to spell precisely. To a Larry Niven fan, Phssthpok appeared to suit the invoice completely.

So the unpronounceability and perverse spelling will not be accidents. After I turned a setter, it appeared profligate to decide on a unique pseudonym.

Whereas we’re on the topic, are you able to recommend a Larry Niven story appropriate for a newcomer?
My advice could be Ringworld and its sequels: a lot of its concepts have handed into science fiction folklore and influenced, as an illustration, Iain M Banks’s Tradition novels.

Thanks. What do you do for a residing?
My day job is a lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright, a Metropolis legislation agency, the place I’m fortunate to have a wide-ranging function that features AI and different improvements.

The Switch Downside by Adam Saint.

I'm very simply distracted, although, and have a number of different pursuits – I hope no one from work is studying this. Aside from compiling, I produce educational work in arithmetic and associated areas.

And my debut novel was printed this yr.The Switch Downside is a speculative thriller, not that includes any crosswords however hopefully with enough twists to fulfill puzzle lovers. For that, I've adopted one other pseudonym: Adam Saint.

I see the place that one derives from.Now, what makes a profitable clue?
A sublime floor studying cleanly superimposed over a exact cryptic that means: I'm an old style follower of the Ximenean custom and a stickler for compliance with the principles.

Generally you possibly can’t beat the sheer delight of a pure cryptic definition. I believe this one appeared in a Instances crossword within the early 80s though I’ve by no means been in a position to monitor it down, so perhaps I simply dreamed it:

Revolutionary forklift (9)

And this well-known clue by Brian Greer manages to include English grammatical ambiguity, echoing Chomsky’s “flying planes will be harmful”:

Looking animals will be pricey sport (9)

Phssthpok displaying Phssthpok Jr the right way to remedy a crossword.

We’ll give the solutions on the finish.After I think about an FT solver, they’re on a prepare, in a go well with. Similar?
Sure, though these days I suppose they is perhaps working from dwelling in a T-shirt and shorts.

One distinction from different broadsheets is that the FT readership could be very worldwide. The editor tries to make sure that no parochial English data creeps into the clues. The exception is cricket: a fundamental understanding of the sport is clearly a vital ethical advantage wherever on this planet you reside.

Properly, fairly. Lastly, is setting artwork or craft?
Setting is an artwork. No one who has had their breath taken away by the sheer great thing about a superbly constructed clue may suppose in any other case. A crossword clue, at its finest, is a type of poetry, like a haiku, the strict limitations of the shape compressing it right into a flawless gem. I hope cryptic crosswords will proceed to characteristic in our newspapers – bodily and on-line – and I'm privileged to be concerned of their creation.

Many because of Phssthpok. The solutions to the quoted clues are SPAGHETTI and PREDATORS.

The Transport Forecast Puzzle Ebook by Alan Connor, which is partly however not predominantly cryptic, will be ordered from the Guardian Bookshop.

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