Edward Powys Mathers aka Torquemada

Edward Powys Mathers’s (1892 – 1939) introduced the cryptic crossword to Britain in 1924 through the pages of the Observer. Known as Torquemada, he was acknowledged as a brilliant translator and a critic specialising in crime fiction. In 1934 he published a selection of his puzzles under the title The Torquemada Puzzle Book – the final 100 pages of which contained the novel-cum-puzzle Cain’s Jawbone. The book is being re-issued with the assistance of The Laurence Sterne Trust and Patrick Wildgust, the curator of Shandy Hall.