Introduction
What is black and white, and read all over? Tony Augarde's books on word games and wordplay are widely read, and have even been translated into Japanese!

He is the undisputed authority on word games and wordplay. His books include The  Oxford Guide to Word Games (OUP, 1984), The  Oxford A to Z of Word Games (OUP, 1994) and Oxford Word Challenge (OUP, 1998). The Guide tells the story of the most popular word games; the A to Z describes how to play more than 250 games with words; and Oxford Word Challenge contains a series of word puzzles of increasing fiendishness.

After gaining a B.A. degree at Oxford University, Tony worked at the Oxford University Press for 30 years compiling dictionaries. He is now a freelance writer, broadcaster and musician.

For television he has appeared on This Morning (ITV) and Good Morning (BBC). On BBC Radio 4, he has featured in Word of Mouth, Wordly Wise and Bill Bryson's series Mother Tongue. He has broadcast word quizzes on Talk Radio UK, LBC and other radio stations, and he presents a weekly jazz programme on BBC Radio Oxford. He plays the drums in two jazz bands, and writes a regular wordplay column (as well as television reviews) for the Oxford Times.

Writings
The Oxford A to Z of Word Games and Oxford Word Challenge are both still in print and obtainable from all good bookshops and online booksellers. You may be able to find The Oxford Guide to Word Games in secondhand bookshops. Other out-of-print books are Tony's adaptations of P.G.Wodehouse's Summer Lightning and John Hawkesworth's Upstairs Downstairs for foreign learners of English.

When he worked at the Dictionary Department of the Oxford University Press, Tony compiled The Oxford Intermediate Dictionary (1981), The Oxford School Dictionary (ed. 4, 1981) and The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations (1991). He also worked on the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Pocket Oxford Dictionary.

Tony has written pamphlets on Gandhi, remembrance and disarmament for the Peace Pledge Union, and he co-edited (with Cyril Wright) the book Peace is the Way (1990). He has contributed articles to the Dictionary of National Biography, Contemporary Review, The Pacifist, Peace Matters, The Author, Medicine and War, Oxford Today, Crescendo and The International Journal of Lexicography.

How Can He Help You?
He can compile word puzzles or general-knowledge quizzes, as he has done for several radio stations and for the Xrefer website. He can give talks on wordplay, as he has already done at literary festivals in Cheltenham, Swindon and Kent.

He can write an article - or a series of articles - about words, word games and wordplay.

He can give talks on various aspects of jazz. If you send him review copies, he could play and review your jazz albums in his jazz programme on BBC Radio Oxford, which is broadcast to all the local BBC stations in the south-east, reaching nine counties. He also reviews books on jazz and writes record reviews for jazz magazines.

He can give a talk, or write an article, about pacifism.

He can play the drums for jazz or dance bands or most other kinds of groups.