Although sudoku puzzles are the latest addition to veteran puzzle compiler Michael Mepham's portfolio, he is perhaps best known as the man behind The Daily Telegraph's Weekend giant general knowledge crossword.

Over the seven years he has been compiling this puzzle, over 22,000 of Michael's brain-testing clues have been consumed by this crossword alone.

While his journalism has mainly been in writing and editing, Michael began a Fleet Street career as an agency news photographer in the mid-1970s, having qualified at Newport College of Art and Design.

Profile of Michael Mepham

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He quickly moved into higher editorial domains before taking an interest in  computer typesetting in the 1980s.

By the mid-1980s Michael was offering publishers computerised solutions to age-old typesetting problems. A national daily newspaper seized on his system for ensuring accurate crossword setting that also guaranteed that crossword clues appeared with the correct grid: a system that newspaper quickly applied to their puzzle book publishing operation.

Other newspapers and magazines soon came on board and before long Michael was working for such publishers as Macmillan, Headline, Collins, News Group Newspapers, Northcliffe and The Telegraph Group as well as host of smaller publishers and regional newspapers.

Taking on the deadlines of what seemed like the whole industry proved excessive, and by 1989 Michael began to think seriously about the direction his career was taking. A move to rural Somerset and a change of emphasis in his work resulted in what we now see as Michael Mepham Editorial Services. Since then Michael's business has been confined to a select few A-list clients who receive a premier service in the puzzle and games production sector.