The late Michael Curl.
Dad was born in South Shields, met my Mum at a YHA folk dance at Ivinghoe, married and lived in Dunstable for a few years before moving to and settling in Yorkshire. They had been married for nearly 54 years and together for 57 at the time of dad’s passing.
He worked for Unilever for the majority of his career, where he was a software developer, but that just paid the bills really. He was creating crosswords ever since I can remember, starting with squared paper and a black felt tip! Other interests have come and gone throughout his life, but crosswords were a lifelong passion.
My mum tells me that he originally started creating crosswords just for fun back in the 1970s, really to see if he could do it. On the off-chance he sent one in to the editor of The Guardian, who published it and that was the start of it.
He was able to take early retirement in 2000 so he could concentrate on building his empire. He had a few different websites over the years and had been setting crosswords and puzzles for various print publications ever since. He also authored a number of crossword books for The Times and The Dalesman and authored The Anagram Dictionary.
