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The Reverend John Galbraith Graham
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(16 February 1921 – 26 November 2013) was a British
crossword A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the a ...
compiler, best known as Araucaria of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. He was also, like his father Eric Graham, a
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church record ...
priest.


Career

Graham was born in
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, where his father, Eric Graham, held the post of dean of
Oriel College Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College ...
. The family moved to a country rectory in Wiltshire. After attending
St Edward's School, Oxford St Edward's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in Oxford, England. It is known informally as 'Teddies'. Approximately sixty pupils live in each of its thirteen houses. The school is a member of the Rugby ...
, he obtained a place to read classics at
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...
, leaving to join the
RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) ...
when the Second World War began. After the war he returned to King's to read theology. In 1949 he joined the staff of
St Chad's College , motto_English = Not what you have, but who you are , scarf = , established = 1904 , principal = Margaret Masson , senior_tutor = Eleanor Spencer-Regan , undergraduates = 409 , postgraduates = 150 , website = , coordinates = , location_map ...
,
Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...
as Chaplain and Tutor where he worked until 1952. On Graham's departure the Principal, Theo Wetherall, paying tribute to his good nature, wrote that "he squandered his sensitive taste and knowledge of Classics on 1B Greek with unfailing patience enlivened by rare expressions of nausea". He later became a vicar in
Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The pop ...
. Writing his first puzzle for ''The Guardian'' in July 1958, he eventually took to compiling crosswords full-time when his divorce in the late 1970s lost him his living as a clergyman (he was reinstated after the death of his first wife). In December 1970, ''The Guardian'' began publishing its crosswords under the pseudonyms of their compilers, at which point Graham selected the name "Araucaria". Besides Araucaria's
cryptic crossword A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, inc ...
s in ''The Guardian'', of which he produced around six per month, he also set around a third of the quick crosswords for ''The Guardian'', cryptic crosswords as Cinephile in the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' and puzzles for other publications. In 1984, he founded 1 Across magazine as a way of providing more of his puzzles to subscribers who wanted them; the magazine still publishes five crosswords monthly: four new puzzles by various setters, and one by Araucaria taken from the extensive 1 Across archive. He took his pseudonym from the monkey-puzzle tree, whose Latin name is ''Araucaria araucana''. Another name for this tree is the "Chile Pine", of which "Cinephile" is an anagram, demonstrating his love for film. Graham lived in Somersham, Cambridgeshire. He was made a Member of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
in the 2005 New Year's Honours, for services to the newspaper industry. In July 2011 Graham was the subject of the BBC radio programme ''
Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...
'', in which he revealed that he always used ''
Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left ...
'' tiles as an aid when compiling. The December 2012 issue of ''1 Across'' magazine printed an Araucaria puzzle which revealed that Graham had oesophageal cancer. The puzzle was reprinted as ''Guardian'' cryptic No. 25,842 on 11 January 2013. The puzzle had a supplementary narrative beginning "Araucaria has 18 down of the 19, which is being treated with 13 15". Those who solved the puzzle found the answer to 18 down was "cancer", to 19 "oesophagus", and to 13 and 15 "palliative" and "care". Other clues had answers such as "Macmillan Nurse", "stent", "chemotherapy", "endoscopy" and "sunset". Araucaria said this particular puzzle had not taken him very long, adding that a crossword had seemed the most fitting way to make the announcement. "It seemed the natural thing to do somehow," he said. "It just seemed right." The last Araucaria puzzle published before Graham's death also had some hidden meanings: it included answers such as "
cottage hospital A cottage hospital is a semi-obsolete type of small hospital, most commonly found in the United Kingdom. The original concept was a small rural building having several beds.The Cottage Hospitals 1859–1990, Dr. Meyrick Emrys-Roberts, Tern Publicati ...
", " nil by mouth" and "time to go". Fellow Guardian crossword compiler and friend Sandy Balfour was with Graham on the night of his death, reading to him. A year after his death, on 27 November 2014, The Guardian published a crossword with the grid and some clues compiled by him but completed by his friend and fellow compiler 'Philistine'. He was described as having a "mischievous erudition, humility and courage."


Style

Graham's clue-writing style made him one of the best-loved of all setters. His style falls into a grouping sometimes referred to as "Araucarian". This style, of which ''The Guardians Bunthorne was another notable exponent, has influenced most of the current crop of Guardian setters and contrasts with the more rigid " Ximenean" style favoured by ''The Times''. Widely admired for his clever use of cross-references and special themes, he was usually called upon to produce the extra-large puzzles printed in ''The Guardian'' on
bank holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or h ...
s; these sometimes even included two grids, with complicated rules governing the placing of answers in each. He is also credited with creating a new format of crossword, the "alphabetical jigsaw" in which the clues are labelled with letters rather than numbers, and the grid has no markers to indicate the placement of solutions. Instead the clues are arranged in alphabetical order of their answer – usually labelled with the beginning letter, with either one or two clues for each letter. The answers are to be placed "jigsaw-wise, however they may fit," though of course only one arrangement will work. These puzzles have been christened 'araubeticals' by fans on the crossword website www.fifteensquared.net. Araucaria's clues to the alphabetical jigsaws are often in the form of rhyming couplets in
iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...
. In a few puzzles, an additional clue is given which describes a phrase or set of words placed around the edge of the grid (alternate squares of the perimeter being black) to give a starting point for placing some of the answers. His clues often included long anagrams, with his favourite appearing in a Christmas puzzle: :''O hark the herald angels sing the boy’s descent which lifted up the world'', an anagram of "While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground". Another much-quoted example of his brilliance in clue-setting is the following: :''Poetical scene with surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12)'' which yields " The Old Vicarage, Grantchester". This is the title of a poem by
Rupert Brooke Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an E ...
. The anagram was a topical reference to
Jeffrey Archer Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not ...
who was the vicarage's current owner and was lying low there at the time following a sex scandal.


Books

Several collections of his crosswords have been published. His crosswords have also been included in many other compilations, not listed here. *''Monkey Puzzles'' (2002) *''Monkey Puzzles volume 2'' (2004) *''Chambers Book of Araucaria Crosswords Volume 1'' (2003) *''Chambers Book of Araucaria Crosswords Volume 2'' (2005) *''Chambers Book of Araucaria Crosswords Volume 3'' (2006) *''Chambers Book of Araucaria Crosswords Volume 4'' (2008)


References


External links


The Monkey Puzzler
– 80th birthday tribute from ''The Guardian''
Obituary
– from ''The Guardian'' *
Profile
– Araucaria's crosswords from 1999 to 2013 in ''The Guardian''
John Graham on ''Desert Island Discs''
– BBC Radio 4 podcast {{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, John Galbraith 1921 births 2013 deaths People from Oxford Academics of Durham University Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Crossword compilers 20th-century English Anglican priests Members of the Order of the British Empire People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford Royal Air Force personnel of World War II The Guardian journalists Deaths from esophageal cancer Staff of St Chad's College, Durham