The new Exeter book of riddles

"The New Exeter Book of Riddles", compiled and edited by Kevin Crossley-Holland and Lawrence Sail, is a lively and intriguing riposte to the famous collection of Anglo-Saxon riddles in the original Exeter Book.

A hundred contemporary poets, among them Alan Brownjohn, Gillian Clarke, Vicki Feaver, Michael Longley, Roger McGough and Kit Wright, make their distinctive and teasing contributions to the long tradition, which goes back to riddles found on Babylonian wax tablets.

The range of form and tone is matched by the variety of subjects, some of which would scarcely have been out of place in the original "Exeter Book", while others - DNA, a supermarket trolley, a getaway car - could only be late twentieth century.

Readers old and young will find plenty to delight and challenge them here: and in a riddle delight and challenge are inseperable.