h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Some people with too much time on their hands compose very clever anagrams.

These ones were devised in the early part of last century and collected in the 1970s, long before people had access to clever internet resources for this sort of thing.

And so, can you solve these?

1. Felons cry “no mate in it!” (2 words)
2. Read elfs’ yarns in a set (3 words, hint: book title)
3. Moon-starers
4. Lithe acts
5. A dictionary can be elephantic (3 words)
6. A pile for us on Thames (3 words)
7. A novel by a Scottish writer (5 words, hint: “Title” by “Author”)
8. A step-in

Usual drill - if you need to look them up, please don't share your search results here. Smiley prizes will be awarded.

And feel free to post any clever ones you've come across.

Icy

3. Astronomers

I thought I'd better claim the easy one instantly before someone else does...

<BB<

7. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

<BB<

4. Athletics

8. Panties

5. The Encyclopaedia Britannica

2. Andersen's fairy tales

1. solitary confinement

Re: 5., That was my first guess, but then I misplaced the H and gave up.

6. Houses of Parliament

I'm glad Icy said 'beginning of the century', or I'd never have figured it out.

The best I've seen was designed by Cory Calhoun.

Here's the anagram:

"In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten."

Recognise it?





Here's what it is an anagram of:

"To be or not to be: that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

What a cool anagram!

I posted this on another thread years ago, but it's my favourite:

Mr Cecil Parkinson, Secretary of State for Energy =
Rotter freely fornicating on S Keays. Scram, creep!

It refers to this UK political story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/14/newsid_2534000/2534615.stm

Oh, and I think you solved all the questions earlier.

Prizes:

Dmitri
Bluebottle
Baron Grim, TC

Thank you all for solving them.

You are all very clever.

I figured out the Houses of Parliament but was too late. Still haven't figured out the 20 questions Icy posed a while back which I think were anagrams. I might solve them tomorrow. I'm going to my place in Wexford where there is a Scrabble set. The easiest way to solve anagrams is with a Scrabble set.

Sounds promising!