Subscribing to the Magpie for the first few years was torture for AJ, who has a physical reaction to imbalanced font sizes and inconsistent typesetting. When he heard that the editors might want someone to help with the layout, he jumped at the chance. He’s prepared to bet his annual Magpie appearance fee that no item of punctuation will be misplaced in the pdf version of the magazine, ever. Go on, find one. Then you’ll see what the annual fee is.

AJ prides himself on not being obsessed by crosswords, in order to make time for other obsessions, but he does find time to set the odd puzzle, under the pseudonym of Mash, to universally high acclaim. He currently retains the bragging rights of being the only editor to have won Puzzle of the Year, but fully expects that not to last long. Unfortunately setting easy puzzles has a difficulty rating for him well off the current scale.