A family of words

'How has Anthea Bell made Asterix even funnier in English than in French?' asked David Bellos in his book about translation, Is That A Fish In Your Ear? Praise indeed. I wanted to know more.

Anthea Bell is the daughter of Adrian Bell, the first cryptic crossword setter for The Times, who was described in an article to celebrate the publication of the 25,000th such crossword as ‘a farmer who wrote with a quill pen.’ Oliver Kamm, The Times current resident pedant, is Anthea Bell's son.

Adrian Bell was also the father of BBC journalist Martin Bell who won a famous victory as independent MP for Tatton in the wake of the cash for questions scandal & was himself featured in Radio 4's Archive on 4 on Saturday, which looked at the subject of reporters who cross the line, with special reference to Bell’s reporting from Bosnia.

Is a facility with, & deep interest in, language & words due to nature or nurture, one wonders.

That Times article I referred to also told us that Adrian Bell remains the most prolific setter in the newspaper’s history with 5,000 puzzles to his name.

I wonder if the man who was recently described, by the current crossword editor, in an article about the recent national competition as his best current setter, will match Bell’s record. He it is, I think, who is changing the nature of crossword clues to make them encrypted rather than cryptic.

Tatton is now the constituency of George Osborn, our besieged Chancellor of the Exchequer, who may have to look for a new seat because of his government’s own boundary change.

Links
Making Asterix funny in English
INTERVIEW: Anthea Bell, Part 1
Obituary: Antony Kamm, publisher, author, historian and cricketer
The Times Crossword Championship ­ Unofficial information
Archive on 4 When Reporters Cross the Line
George Osborne MP for Tatton
Boundary review could see end of Tatton constituency

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