In a time when the ways in which we are able to enjoy ourselves are becoming more and more limited, I’ve been prompted to think about people in the past and the amount of sheer work they put into their leisure pursuits. The place I want to start is Ptarmigan Books. Ptarmigan was a very small imprint of Penguin Books, one of the family of ‘P’ birds in the Penguin family. Ptarmigan was devoted to puzzles and indoor games.
‘Who wrote that?’ was the work of Hubert Phillips (1891-1964) who edited the Ptarmigan Books and who was a man of many talents, economist, journalist, bridge player and authority and crossword compiler and puzzle maker par excellence.
The books is a literary quiz and not for the faint hearted. I’m inserting a small sample (and the answers). It’s a pause for thought too on how broad a reading knowledge Phillips could expect from his readers…
The Solitary Reader 