Ali Gascoigne author page

Hi again everyone. It's still a lovely, pinch-me-is-this-really-happening moment to be published overseas, and more so to be making my first appearance at the crunchier end of the week. I hope this first themeless finds you well.

The seed entry for this grid was the central IT'S A YES FROM ME. For some inexplicable reason, it's just one of those random phrases I quite like. The symmetrical crosser SECRET SERVICE is hardly a humdinger, but immediately appealed to my (more default) cryptic constructor brain. As it turns out, my original clue ("Bond with colleagues as a group?") didn't cut the mustard, but I like the "Protective suits?" replacement we now have. A number of other clues were changed/tweaked throughout, mainly I think to move the whole thing firmly into Saturday territory. On first review of the proof, the puzzle seemed quite tricky to me, so I'll be interested to see how people fare with it.

Elsewhere, welcome back SKEE-LO, the mere mention of whom will always connect me to a certain time, place and people. When we got cable TV installed in our flat at uni (a real novelty at the time, trust me!), "I Wish" was all over the 3 music channels we spent far too many hours watching. That song and endless, peak-era episodes of The Simpsons ... happy days.

Stay well and I hope you enjoy solving.

Hello again from London. It's nice to be back. I hope this puzzle finds you safe and well wherever, ahem, UR.

Although I'm only a couple of years into constructing US-style puzzles, I'm already no stranger to the all-too-frequent "Simpsons Already Did It" moments that come when you discover that your latest theme idea has already been covered elsewhere. At the time of construction, I couldn't find anything to suggest that the UR/you are homophone trick had been done before. 18 months on — and with better sources of info at my disposal — I still can't find any to show it having been done as a rebus, so hopefully, this one felt relatively novel.

My earlier attempts at creating a grid involved trying to cram as many UR squares in as possible, but I eventually settled on mainly trying to distribute them within the longer answers. The end product is what the team described as an "entry-level rebus puzzle" (from someone I would describe as an entry-level constructor!)

Clue-wise, I'm glad to see a fair few of mine survived, though my ongoing attempt at getting some British slang into the puzzle has failed again. One day. And spare a thought for Fred Durst. I'm sure he's never forgiven me for the letter I had published in a 2001 issue of Q magazine saying how much I didn't like Limp Bizkit's music, and he was edited out of 19A here.

Happy solving, and stay safe.

It's a huge hono(u)r to be making my NYT debut. To think that people will be solving my puzzle makes me quite giddy.

I was born in Yorkshire, England and live in London. I'm a marketer by day, cryptic puzzle constructor by night. My puzzles appear under the pseudonym Gila in The Independent and I've contributed thematic puzzles for the Inquisitor and Enigmatic Variations series.

I started solving — and became obsessed with — US puzzles in early 2018. They're every bit as good as cryptics; often more so in terms of gridwork skills. Having happily spent hours creating grids for puzzles themed on, among other things, Homer Simpson and Seinfeld mirroring UK politics, I couldn't resist the urge to have a go. This was the second puzzle I sent, and the first reply I got from Will.

It's admittedly a simple idea, but the team liked the theme entries and bonus fill. UK puzzles generally stick to the dictionaries, so having access to a broader wordlist of slang, proper nouns, etc. was fun, and is one of the main attractions of US puzzles.

8 months on, I'm mostly pleased with the grid as an early offering from someone with limited experience of solving or constructing US puzzles. Casting a more critical eye post-publication, I think I'd prefer a neater lower stack to avoid ÁVILA and, moreover, NRA, which I've come to see can be (understandably) divisive. More happily, I've spotted — and only now, I promise — that the first 3 down entries could be seen as a subliminal message for the editors!

Clue-wise, it's a challenge moving out of cryptic mode, even when pitching at Monday level. Some clues (e.g. referencing ‘noodle dishes' for BRAINFOODS) were duly edited, and others neatened/improved. I'm hoping I can eventually get my hands on some later-week grids and let loose a bit more!

Thanks for having me and I hope you enjoy.