In 1994, Andrew Diosy and Linda Lee came up with a novel and effective way to present interesting bridge problems. This was to display all four hands at the outset, and ask the reader whether he or she preferred to declare or defend the final contract. In essence, the problem became an exercise in analysis, of a kind that is very familiar to most players – could I have made (or defeated) Four Spades? Each solution was divided into two parts, the first of which discussed plausible but flawed lines of play, and pointed the reader towards the real solution.

Ten years later, master problem setter Julian Pottage decided to use the same approach, and the result was ‘Play or Defend?’. The International Bridge Press Association named it their Book of the Year for 2004.