Morse and Mephisto in Broadway and summer 2011 is salvaged

AFTER a summer of rain and riots, wasting energy by putting the central heating on in August and trying to save it by economising on the outrageous cost of filling the car up, it was an early September trip to Broadway that saved the whole season from being a wash-out.

We didn’t exactly go by ‘Almost risk carrying horse in vehicle’ (9) *, but it was that kind of old-fashioned day out. Lunch in a country inn, a wander around the bookshops, a chat with the ice cream man and the village bobby… Then off up Fish Hill to the Farncombe Estate for an afternoon of good conversation and wit, tea and scones with two men who have made me (and many other middle-aged women) very happy over the years.

The gentlemen in question were Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse, and Tim Moorey, the national newspaper crossword compiler who goes by the name of Mephisto. The dynamic duo of ‘Morse and Mephisto’ were giving a talk about their creations and Mr Moorey told the audience that among his correspondents was a lady GP who wrote to him to tell him how much pleasure his efforts gave her. I share her sentiments… an endless supply of cryptic crossword puzzles and a reel of John Thaw playing Morse would keep me very happy on a desert island until my ship came in.

Amid all the entertaining anecdotes and analysis of this very English day talking about very English delights, it was Tim Moorey who issued the sober warning that the days of cruciverbalism might be numbered. He based this conclusion, he said, on the younger generation’s being spellbound by text language which he believes might squash crossword puzzles as pitilessly as a trucker running over what Dexter recalled one young lad referring to in writing as an ‘egog’. Perhaps crossword puzzle solving should become part of the National Curriculum? Ditto late summer days out in middle England.