This delightful book explores the world of the cryptic crossword clue, a place where nothing is quite as it seems. From reflections on his children's musical tastes (might ABBA be an Old Testament citation?) to veiled digs at Labour's foreign policy ('What could be subtler during search for weapon!' 7, 4), each of Sandy Balfour's perfectly proportioned essays is a joyful investigation of these devilishly difficult puzzles and the life they punctuate.

What I Love About Cricket is the story of a summer when a 'master' cricket obsessive teaches his novice 'pupil' the wisdom of the game. Sandy Balfour is cast as the supposed master and his sixteen-year-old daughter's new boyfriend - the skateboarding boy wonder - is the reluctant pupil.This beginner's guide to the infuriatingly perverse game of cricket is a love letter addressed both tothose who utterly fail to understand it and to those who need reminding why they ...

A little gem of a memoir... The book adds up to more than a sum of its parts and lingers in the memory long after the final page. -- Sunday TelegraphHalf a million people a day do it in the Telegraph. The Times claims almost as many, and the Guardian 300,000. Most people remember their first time, and everyone has a favourite. You can do it in bed, standing up, or on a train. You can do it alone, with a loved one or in groups. ...

Sandy Balfour's father and the game of contract bridge were both conceived in 1925. Vulnerable in Hearts spans the eight decades of Tom Balfour's life and the same period in the epic story of bridge's spread around the world. Sandy Balfour's poignant and beguiling book traces both journeys to explore the relationships between a game and an empire (and the rules that supported it); and a father and a son.