Roger Squires (born 22 February 1932 in

Tettenhall Tettenhall is an historic village within the City of Wolverhampton, England. Tettenhall became part of Wolverhampton in 1966, along with Bilston, Wednesfield and parts of Willenhall, Coseley and Sedgley. History Tettenhall's name derives fro ...

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

, England) is a retired 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 answ ...

compiler/setter, living in

Ironbridge Ironbridge is a large village in the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. Located on the bank of the River Severn, at the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge, it lies in the civil parish of The Gorge. Ironbridge developed beside, an ...

, Shropshire, who is best known for being the world's most prolific compiler. He compiled under the pseudonym Rufus in ''

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 ...

'', Dante 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, Nikk ...

'' and was the Monday setter for the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''.

Early life

Squires was educated at

Wolverhampton Grammar School Wolverhampton Grammar School is a co-educational independent school in Wolverhampton, England. History Initially a grammar school for boys, WGS was founded in 1512 by Sir Stephen Jenyns, a master of the ancient guild of Merchant Taylors, who ...

where he gained his

School Certificate The School Certificate was a qualification issued by the Board of Studies, New South Wales, typically at the end of Year 10. The successful completion of the School Certificate was a requirement for completion of the Higher School Certificate. T ...

before joining the Royal Navy at age 15 as a Boy Seaman. His first published puzzle appeared in 1963, the year that he left the Navy, in the Wolverhampton ''Express & Star''. The first national was the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'', and in the same year he became a regular compiler with the ''

Birmingham Post The ''Birmingham Post'' is a weekly printed newspaper based in Birmingham, England, with a circulation of 2,545 and distribution throughout the West Midlands. First published under the name the ''Birmingham Daily Post'' in 1857, it has had a s ...

''. He then started compiling for syndicates that supplied puzzles for newspapers in the UK and abroad.

Career

In 1981 he joined ''

'', the ''

Times Educational Supplement ''Tes'', formerly known as the ''Times Educational Supplement'', is a weekly UK publication aimed at education professionals. It was first published in 1910 as a pull-out supplement in ''The Times'' newspaper. Such was its popularity that in 19 ...

'',"The Glasgow Herald" and ''

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 became the ''Birmingham Post'' crossword editor for 22 years. In 1986 he joined the ''

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''. He compiled for '' The Sun'' (1992–1998), ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' (1993–2005) and the ''Times Educational Supplement'' (1981–2006). He has set crosswords under pseudonyms including Rufus, Dante, Icarus, Hodge and Bower. In 1990 he captained the Great Britain crossword team in the 12 nation International Crossword Marathon in

Bjelovar Bjelovar ( hu, Belovár, german: Bellowar, Kajkavian: ''Belovar'') is a city in central Croatia. It is the administrative centre of Bjelovar-Bilogora County. At the 2021 census, there were 36,433 inhabitants, of whom 93.06% were Croats. History ...

, Yugoslavia. He registered his company name of "Cryptic Crosswords" in the early 1970s. He has now published over 70,000 crosswords in total, and on 14 May 2007 what was estimated to be his two millionth clue was published in the ''Daily Telegraph''. The clue was 'Two girls, one on each knee (7)'. Squires is recognised by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as "The World's Most Prolific Crossword Compiler". He appeared in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' from 1978 until all crossword records were dropped in 2002. An update to December 2005 was included in the 2008 print edition. His puzzles have appeared in 32 countries outside the UK. In 2013, he celebrated his 50th year as a professional setter, on the same day as the Crossword's First Centenary. By 30 June 2013 he had compiled 74,634 crosswords, equivalent to 2.25 million clues. He holds the record for the longest word used in a published puzzle, the Welsh place name:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (), is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanfa ...

gogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which he clued as an anagram: "Giggling troll follows Clancy, Larry, Billy and Peggy who howl, wrongly disturbing a place in Wales (58)". He is one of only four setters to have been on the regular teams of all five quality newspapers (''The Times'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''The Guardian'', ''The Independent'' and ''Financial Times''). He holds the Guinness Record for the Longest Published Crossword – at 8 feet long, because Onsworld Ltd were unable to publish the whole 24 ft puzzle. He has also produced a 3D crossword that fits on a

Rubik's Cube The Rubik's Cube is a Three-dimensional space, 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarians, Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik t ...

."Tales from a cryptic crossworder"
BBC News, 7 November 2002

Publications

Many crossword anthologies, including ''The Times'', ''Guardian'', ''Telegraph'', ''Financial Times'', and the ''Herald'' include cryptic puzzles by Squires, including one book devoted solely to 100 of his ''Guardian'' cryptics. In collaboration with Ken Guy he produced three general knowledge books on "The 1950s", "The 1960s" and "The 1970s". He has been featured in a number of crossword books about Squires' inclusion in "A Display of Lights (9)". In 2000 the ''

'' published an article titled "Clued up" in which he was interviewed.

Other various appearances

Apart from crosswords, he is qualified for membership of Mensa and The Magic Circle, and he was a

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

observer in his twenties, during which time he qualified for the Goldfish Club (for survivors of aircraft ditchings) by escaping from his

Gannet Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus ''Morus'' in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. Gannets are large white birds with yellowish heads; black-tipped wings; and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the Nor ...

AEW AEW or aew may refer to: * Airborne early warning, airborne radar system for detecting aircraft * Aerosvit Airlines, an airline based in Kyiv, Ukraine (ICAO airline designator: AEW) * AEW Capital Management, a property investment management company ...

aircraft 60 feet below the surface off Ceylon (now

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

) in March 1961. From 1964 to 1977 he made over 250 appearances on TV as a comedy magician. He was featured talking about crosswords in the TV programme "How To Solve Cryptic Crosswords" (BBC4) in 2009, and in the BBC One Show (BBC1) in 2011."Interview: Roger Squires"
Shuchismita Upadhyay, Crossword Unclued, 9 November 2011

Personal life

In 1977 his first marriage foundered and he gave up professional acting and magic to work from home so that he could look after his two pre-teenage sons. Squires later married Anna. A keen sportsman, Squires represented the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm at football and cricket and is a qualified Football Association Coach and Referee.

References