Tom Swiftys

You don't need to be an older puzzler to have come across the fictional teenage inventor Tom Swift, whose first adventure was published in 1910. He is the hero of over a hundred scientific adventure novels for youngsters, all the way into our century. Tom's inventions have sometimes anticipated real ones, such as the fax and the motor home.

Assorted ghost writers have shared the authorial credit of Victor Appleton, all with an apparent horror of the bald phrase 'he said'. Tom never merely 'says' anything, when he can 'exclaim', 'gasp' or 'expostulate' it, with adverbs to suit, and this quirk has led to the genre of puns called Tom Swiftys, as in, '"I'll chance it," he hazarded,' or '"I feel like a dog," he barked.'

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