'The Daily Telegraph Crossword Puzzle Book', London, [1930],...

Hammer

£22

'The Daily Telegraph Crossword Puzzle Book', London, [1930], 66,[2]pp, 50 crosswords (all blank/not filled in), followed by 13 pages of solutions at end, 4to (25 x 19cm), original pictorial cloth. Scarce first edition of the first Daily Telegraph Crossword Puzzle Book. The first Daily Telegraph crossword was published July 30 1925, with the first Saturday prize crossword appearing in March 1928, and this first Telegraph Crossword puzzle compilation in book form being published in June 1930. Many military intelligence heroes of the second World War, the men and women of Bletchley Park who broke the apparently unbreakable Enigma code, were crossword fanatics. Following criticism from Daily Telegraph readers that the paper's puzzle was becoming too easy, a challenge was issued, and on January 10 1942, 25 contestants met at The Telegraph building to attempt to solve a previously unseen crossword within this time limit. Five contestants succeeded and, such was the achievement, the War Office contacted the fastest competitors 'on a matter of national importance', with many of those interviewed going on to work at Bletchley and in other intelligence roles.