I am interested in studying the names of well known people as they are known to the public and also character names. I sometimes venture into other subjects such as book/film titles or place names. I always avoid contrived anagram subjects.

I played Boggle a lot when I was young and that developed an eye for short anagrams. However, it wasn't until 1996 when I was sitting in my office cubicle that I got the idea to study names of celebrities. I didn't even know the word 'anagram' at the time.

The first name that I studied was Demi Moore. Using pen and paper, I found Rodeo mime. The second name I studied was Clint Eastwood. I found Old West action, not realising until months later that this was a well known anagram.

Until 2010, I had never used computer aids to solve anagrams. I mainly used Scrabble tiles and sometimes I would solve them in my head, although it was very difficult to solve long ones that way. In 2010 I would supplement my tile searches by going online and using the Internet Anagram Server. Starting more recently, I started to use free software called Anagram Artist.

I put a lot of emphasis on grammar and structure and I search for phrases and sentences that are sensible and flowing if the letters are cooperative. During my first year of anagrams, when I was rather obsessed with them, I studied a few thousand names. One of the names I studied was Helena Bonham Carter. When topical starting words like actor and role didn't yield anything memorable, I changed tack and found No heart can blame her. As time went on, I liked this anagram more and more due to its poetic nature. From then on, language became at least as important as topicality, maybe even more so. I also decided that I would not catalog any profane, mean-spirited or slanderous anagrams.