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Episode details

Radio 4,20 Aug 2013,28 mins

Language Games

Word of Mouth

Available for over a year

From Ancient Greece, to Saturday nights watching TV, word puzzles have fascinated people for thousands of years. Chris Ledgard takes us on a journey through the language of puzzles, from anagrams to Call My Bluff, and visits the International Linguistics Olympiad to meet to some of the sharpest puzzle-solving minds in the business. Puzzle setter for The Guardian, Chris Maslanka, explains the secrets of puzzle setting; Marcel Danesi from the University of Toronto explains the Riddle of the Sphinx; and scientist Katherine Friedlander explains how you can improve your puzzle solving. Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

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