Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Elle,
It is beginning to look like your email did not get to either Rose or Mr Rogan. Pigale got an acknowledgement, wonder if she got an email? Was a very friendly email, Elle. He even said he would try and get a Scottish setter!
To stop me moaning probably. But he was jesting, I think.
He said he could not say if there were too many Londonisms but would try to ensure there were not "too" many in future.
For interest, the geographical breakdown in setters is,

4 from Ireland,
2 From Manchester,
3 from Yorkshire,
1 from Newcastle (a Londoner),
1 from Hampshire,
1 from Brighton,
1 from North Wales,
1 from Darlington (lives in NZ)
4 from London (one is a New Zealander)
So, a good mix I would say.
Mr Rogan explained that London was a major city and many people living outside London knew quite a bit about it.
So, that is all my news.
I shall reply, and remind him to get a Scottish setter so he can tease the public with words like "forfoughten" and "dreich" etc!

Hey Rusty and Elle,

I have just this minute received a very nice letter (mail) from R. Rogan who first said that he was always very pleased to know of people from abroad tackling the Times xwords; he then said that it was quite an achievement in itself and he appreciated that to a non-British person, clues with reference to Cockney or to too many places around London could be an added difficulty.

the rest is similar to Rusty's letter and to finish his letter, he made an anagram of my name in the last sentence - a nice humorous gesture.

Wonder if Feedback will get published (even if somewhat edited)

Good show, Pigale!
Very nice of Mr Rogan.
I think he will be good at anagrams.
He has been a finalist in The Times Crossword Championship in the past!
I am beginning to wonder if they will use part of Elle's letter for the feedback column? She has had no reply, so maybe keeping her until Saturday.
Unless she had a senior moment and goodness knows where her emails have gone?

Rusty, I think Elle did the same as I did - one email to Mr Rogan, AND one letter to Feedback without mentioning Mr. Rogan's name. What I don't know is whether Elle gave her address as required in order to receive an answer.

Pigale,
I never gave an address, just my email address.
I sent one email to Feedback, who must have forwarded it to Mr Rogan. That's all.
Goodness knows about Elle, she is a mystery!

Hi, Rusty and Pigale!
Somewhat surprisingly , considering the silence so far, I too have just had a very nice email from Richard Rogan!
It was similar in content to what you have outlined, Rusty, again saying that , as London is a major city, he considered that most people would know about London landmarks and tube stations, for instance, even if they lived elsewhere than London.
He stated too that most of the setters are representative of different parts of the UK.
But I got the impression from his letter that he really thought that it was perfectly acceptable to use "Londonisms" as most folk would know about them?
I didn't come away with the same feeling as you apparently did, that he would change the situation, and redress the balance? - although he did say that he would bear my comments in mind for the future.

Rusty, less of the "senior moments"!
And what does "forfoughten" mean, please?

Hello, Elle!
"I will try and ensure that there are not too many "Londonisms", in future, at least none that might be regarded as requiring unreasonably local knowledge"
That is what he told me. The "too" in the above sentence was in slopey print for emphasis.
I don't agree with him about many people knowing about London. I could take you on a tour of my city and I doubt anyone would know that Brentford is in West London, or "fief" means burglar.
But points have been made and all I want is a fair unbiased puzzle.
And now we know how to get hold of him!
Forfoughten means exhausted. Anne Bradford has four different spellings of the word!

Hi, Rusty!
I'm copying and pasting the relevant paragraph,s from his email to me, that lead me to believe that Mr R may not really intend to change his outlook with regard to "Londonisms".....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am not sure that it is unreasonable to expect solvers, especially in the UK, to know something of London landmarks etc, although I agree that the use of postcodes should be used with caution. The tube station map, however, is widely available in diaries, for example, and includes many famous landmarks in the names.

Our setters are mostly not based in the capital: they hail from different parts of the UK, and are, I believe, using a knowledge of London that one might expect to accrue about such a large and famous city"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This, to me, does not sound like someone who basically agrees with the points of view we were stating?
What do you make of it?

I am becoming "forfoughten" by it all!

Hello, Elle,
That is not quite what he said to me.
I can't copy it to here.
Not up to it.
He is defending the use of Londonisms in that.
It looks like he may not change anything.
It is simple to change newspapers but these setters work for more than one newspaper.
i do not like his first few words, "I am not sure".
Surely he should be sure before replying?
Tube maps are in diaries! I never look at them because I do not use them.
Ach well, at least he had the manners to reply.
Great word, forfoughten!

Hi, Rusty!
Yes, that is what I felt...that he was more-or-less defending the use of "Londonisms" by his words to me!
That is why I thought I would copy and paste it for you to read!
Well, at least we have made our point - and we now know that at least he has read what we put- even if he fails to act on it!
We did at least "stand up and be counted"!
That is what matters!