Here’s a clue: we should all be doing cryptic crosswords

I was once asked by a previous editor of the Times how to increase sales of the paper. I was slightly more circumspect, but the thrust of my argument was: ‘Don’t bother with all that news and opinion malarkey — just teach more people how to solve cryptic crosswords.’

My argument was simple. There are now 40,000 different places where I can obtain global news and metropolitan opinion, but there is only one Times cryptic crossword. ‘Play your cards right.’ I suggested, ‘and you can be the Bernie Ecclestone of cruciverbalism.’ Revive crossword-solving as a craze; create apps whereby two people can co-operate remotely on a single grid; run live competitions. Buy your best crossword setters Bentleys and make them celebrities… stage fights between them outside fashionable nightclubs, that kind of thing.

I think everyone who has discovered cryptic crosswords views their newspaper in this way already — a daily crossword surrounded by superfluous text to glance at when you’re stuck on 23 across.