Jason D C Sullock

Some people do puzzles to pass the time. I make them to bring the past to life.

I have been fascinated by history for as long as I can remember - not the dry dates-and-battles version, but the human story underneath. What it felt like to stand on Hadrian's Wall as the Roman world crumbled. What ordinary people carried with them through the Blitz. What Baker Street might have smelled like on a London November evening in 1895.

My father loved puzzles. In his later years, as Alzheimer's slowly took its toll, working on a word search was one of the ways we stayed connected. I never forgot that.

For me, puzzles are a way of bringing a subject to life. Each word in a grid is a detail rescued from the past and held up to the light. I hope that when you work through one of my books, something of that feeling comes through.

My interests range across the ancient world, the Dark Ages, the two World Wars, and the great flowering of imagination that was the Victorian and Edwardian era - Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne, H G Wells, John Buchan. If it involves fog, intrigue, a crumbling empire, or a brilliant mind working against the odds, I am probably already absorbed in it.

I design every puzzle book in large clear print, because I want the solving to be a pleasure rather than a strain. The subjects deserve your full attention - not a squint.

I hope you enjoy these books as much as I enjoyed making them.

Jason D C Sullock