The Oxford Guide to Word Games

Fülszöveg

This is a book about all kinds of word games and word play, from acrostics and crosswords to rebuses and tongue-twisters. Not only does it reveal the origins of many games, it outlines their history to the present day, and describes how to play them and the many variations that have proliferated over the years. Each chapter examines a game and its offshoots in detail, and illustrates its descriptions with copious examples and diagrams.
It is not surprising to discover that Lewis Carroll was a word-game addict, and that he even invented somé of his own. Writers from Pepys to Noéi Coward have introduced word games into their work; Jane Austen played a form of charades, and both Sir John Betjeman and A. A. Milne have enjoyed a game of Clumps. In another sphere, Queen Elizabeth II shares with Queen Victoria pleasure in the fun of word games. Crosswords have not always enjoyed such august patronage: when the first puzzle appeared in The Times in 1930, one correspondent wrote: 'I hate... Tovább

Fülszöveg

This is a book about all kinds of word games and word play, from acrostics and crosswords to rebuses and tongue-twisters. Not only does it reveal the origins of many games, it outlines their history to the present day, and describes how to play them and the many variations that have proliferated over the years. Each chapter examines a game and its offshoots in detail, and illustrates its descriptions with copious examples and diagrams.
It is not surprising to discover that Lewis Carroll was a word-game addict, and that he even invented somé of his own. Writers from Pepys to Noéi Coward have introduced word games into their work; Jane Austen played a form of charades, and both Sir John Betjeman and A. A. Milne have enjoyed a game of Clumps. In another sphere, Queen Elizabeth II shares with Queen Victoria pleasure in the fun of word games. Crosswords have not always enjoyed such august patronage: when the first puzzle appeared in The Times in 1930, one correspondent wrote: 'I hate to see a great newspaper pandering to the modern craze for passing the time in all kinds of stupid ways.'
The Cuide examines traditional forms of word play such as riddles, word squares, and anagrams, as well as popular games like Scrabble and Consequences, types of verbal manipulation like puns and spoonerisms, and guessing games like charades and Hangman. Letter games, alphabet games, games involving diagrams or patterns, the sounds and shapes of words—all have their place in this fascinating collection of verbal ingenuity.
Tony Augarde is a Senior Editor in the English Dictionaries Department of Oxford University Press, and Editor of The Oxford School Dictionary and The Oxford Intermediate Dictionary. He is a freelance reviewer and Arts Editor for the Oxford Times and lives in Oxford with his wife and two children. Vissza