Cryptic Pub Quiz Hardcover – 16 Nov. 2017

This is a really unique quiz idea which mixes quiz knowledge with logical thinking. The only section that I wasn't a fan of was the rebus puzzles which were nigh on impossible to figure out. I would advise doing this quiz with at least one other person so you can knock ideas off each other but it can also be done solo. The drawings are fun and add a little something extra over your average quiz book. Frank Paul has put a hell of a lot of work into this and it would be great if someday there is a volume two.

I loved this book. Frank Paul has written something that is joyous and infuriating in equal measure. There's nothing quite like the sense of satisfaction from completing questions or rounds correctly. I think the question asked in our house most often was, "How does his brain think of these things?"A truly fiendish test for the brain. A fantastic mix of quiz types sure to have something to appeal to every quizzer.

The Cryptic Pub Quiz is a brilliant book for stretching your mind and unearthing hidden facts you half remember. The illustrations add a wonderful depth to this experience. The book can be used to create your own quiz or to enjoy yourself. Its fairly difficult which is good as there are too many quizzes that only require a quick google to find an answer. It is printed on really nice thick paper and is a joy to look through.

Provides a mental workout, not just a test of obscure knowledge. This is what the GCHQ quiz book should have been: you feel that you stand a chance of using all the various clues and a sprinkling of half remembered facts to answer the question. The only trouble is that now it's been published, I can't use it for my own quizzes, but it's an inspiration.

Interesting and intriguing. The mind which can produce this is fascinating.

Not just a good quiz book. A very, very good quiz book indeed.

Undiluted pleasure. A great quiz book.

The problem with most pub quizzes is that you either know the answer or you don't. In contrast, each of the questions in The Cryptic Pub Quiz provide you with multiple ways of tackling each problem, so even if you don't know that much trivia you might guess the correct answer if you think hard enough. For instance, there might be a trivia-style question, but the answer might be a homophone of another word and also an anagram of the previous answer. On our first pass through each set of questions, we can only get a small number of answers and feel very disappointed, but after a half hour and a few breakthroughs we usually can solve 60-90% of them and feel very satisfied with ourselves-- the perfect level of difficulty. Also, the quiz questions have a great sense of humour-- often the answers are really clever puns that are laugh out loud funny once you figure them out. Finally, the questions are accompanied by amazing illustrations and ingenious hand-drawn picture rounds (since Frank Paul's day job is an artist). The book is quite thick so this is probably going to occupy our entire family for the whole Christmas holiday. Frank Paul is a genius to think this stuff up.