Margaret Irvine

Irvine was born on 20 January 1948 in Crosby, Merseyside; she was the only child of Malcolm Irvine, a tax collector, and his wife Kitty.[1][6] When she was 11, they moved to Bispham, near Blackpool and two years later they moved again to Fetcham, Surrey.[6] As a child, Irvine and her family would do the cryptic crossword from that day's paper each evening.[6] She learned Latin for two years at school which she later credited as being helpful for creating puzzles because it was useful to understand the meaning and construction of words.[7]

Irvine studied maths and economics at the University of York before going to work at the Home Office.[6] She later worked in the computer science department of the University of Manchester, staying there until her early retirement in 2005 and living in Chorlton.[6] In retirement, Irvine volunteered at a primary school, where she undertook literacy work, and at a toddlers' group.[6][7]

Irvine set puzzles for The Guardian, The Times, the New Statesman, The Church Times, the i newspaper's Inquisitor, The Sunday Telegraph's Enigmatic Variations, The Listener, and The Magpie Crossword Magazine.[3] Her first crossword published in The Guardian was a 2006 'Quiptic' puzzle;[6] her first cryptic crossword for the Guardian was No. 26,058, published in September 2013.[5] Irvine set over 180 cryptic crosswords for The Guardian over the course of her career.[5]

In 2014, Irvine featured on Woman's Hour alongside John Halpern to talk about gender disparity in crossword setting.[8]

In 2016, she joined compilers Arachne and Puck to create a crossword to mark UN World Toilet Day under the joint pseudonym 'Bogus'.[6] The three also set puzzles for World Smile Day in October 2017 and World Naked Gardening Day in May 2021.[6]

In a 2017 interview, Irvine said she aimed to do seven or eight clues per day and to finish a complete crossword in four days before coming back to "tweak and polish it" later.[7] She noted that The Times was "less permissive" with its crosswords than The Guardian which she said "allows more variation and individuality".[7] Irvine used the Collins English Dictionary, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, the Chambers Dictionary and its Crossword edition, and the Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary.[7]

She was invited to compile crosswords for the New Statesman in 2018 and created 29 for the magazine under the pseudonym Mace; her last puzzle was No. 592, published on 15 July 2022.[2]

Irvine was active in Girlguiding, being a Brown Owl for a Brownie pack for almost 20 years and winning a Queen's Guide Award.[6] She enjoyed cricket and was a life member of Lancashire County Cricket Club.[6][3] Her other interests included classical music and genealogy.[9]

Irvine suffered a fall in 2022 from which she never recovered; she died in 2023.[6]