and he named Morse's old Inspector Macnutt. In Rex Stout's Might as Well Be Dead (1956), detective Nero Wolfe is said to be working on a puzzle by Ximenes. In his 1966 book, Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword (reissued 2001), he laid down rules that he claimed should be present in all good crosswords. These are now known as the "Ximenean principles". They include using a symmetric grid, and the specification of maximum and minimum numbers of "unches" (unchecked letters i.e. ones that only appear in one word in the grid) for a given length of answer. More importantly, he insisted that all clues must be scrupulously fair via rules that were summed up by his successor, Azed, as: A good cryptic clue contains three elements: a precise definition a fair subsidiary indication nothing else He made a number of innovations in crossword setting such as the special clue/puzzle types 'Misprints' and 'Right and Left'. References Crossword compilers 1902 births 1971 deaths Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge People educated at Marlborough College Christ's Hospital staff People from Eastbourne People from Billingshurst