The Magpie is a subscription magazine dedicated to providing the most demanding of puzzle solvers with consistently excellent crosswords and numerical puzzles.

We publish puzzles with a range of difficulties, but solvers familiar with advanced cryptics such as the Enigmatic Variations in the Sunday Telegraph, the Inquisitor in the Independent on Saturday, and the Listener in the Times on a Saturday are the primary audience. However, there is always at least one easier thematic crossword, and one numerical puzzle every month to cater to the significant number of people who enjoy that comparatively rare puzzle form.

Subscribers receive a monthly magazine containing six puzzles, with difficulty grades between A and E. Three prizes are awarded every month to successful solvers.

The web site provides the “Magpie community”, with solutions, comments, statistics, a forum for providing feedback to the setters, chat and celebrity gossip.

Monthly statistics and edited subscriber feedback are published with the solutions, and at the year end there is a prize for the most successful solver, and a vote for the best puzzle of the year. An annual gathering of subscribers and setters has become a major fixture in the crosswording diary.

The Editorial Team

The Magpie is published as a team effort. The editorial team is as follows:

Mark Goodliffe: Third test solver, cofounder and provider of the start of the magazine’s name
Simon Anthony: Cofounder and provider of the end of the magazine’s name
Shane Shabankareh: Second test solver for word puzzles
AJ Moore: Graphic design; proof-reading expert
Chris Lear: Web site guy
Jason Crampton: First test solver and production stuff