PUZZLING PERFECTION

You'd think that Carol, the legendary Countdown mathematician and writer of numerous coding books for children, who is whip smart - whether keeping politicians accountable on X or discussing matters of the day on Loose Women - wouldn’t be phased by any puzzle put in front of her. And yet...

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“There were some you thought, ‘Oh I’m all right with that, but I really don’t want to do this one. Sally's definitely going to beat me on that one,” she admits, noting that the “cipher round” was really not for her, but “join the dots” was a cinch.

“I love it because it’s puzzling, it’s not quizzing,” Carol explains.

“Countdown [on Channel 4] was always a puzzle. Richard Whiteley [the show’s late host] used to call it a parlour game. But it was the same grotty letters. I’ve even got a box of those letters in my unit here in the library!”

“That’s legendary,” adds Jeremy. “You can spend an afternoon reorganising them!”

“Sad old bird, they've been in the box for years,” says Carol, who was on Countdown from 1982 until 2008, with a laugh.

“But there’s something about [only needing] a pack of cards or some chess pieces or drafts and you can while away the hours, because there's something in the brain that gets great joy from that level of concentration.