The Penguin Book of Card Games

Auctions, trumpless hands, cross-ruffing and lurching- card players have a language all of their own. From games of high skill (Bridge) to games of high chance (Newmarket) to trick-taking (Whist) and banking (Pontoon), David Parlett, seasoned specialist in card games, takes us masterfully through the countless games to choose from. Not content to merely show us games with the conventional fifty-two card pack, Parlett covers many games played with other types of cards - are you brave enough to play with Tarot? With a 'working description' of each game, with the rules, variations and origins of each, as well as an appendix of games invented by the author himself, The Penguin Book of Card Games will delight, entertain and inform both the novice and the seasoned player.

A former language-teacher and technical journalist, David Parlett began freelancing in 1975 as a games inventor and author of books on games, a field in which he has built up an impressive international reputation. He is an accredited consultant on gaming terminology to the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993) and regularly advises on the staging of card games in films and television productions. His many books include The Oxford History of Board Games (1999), The Oxford History of Card Games (1990), The Penguin Book Of Word Games (1982), The Penguin Book of Card Games (1979) and The Penguin Book of Patience (1979).

His board game Hare and Tortoise won the prestigious German Game of the Year Award in 1979 and has since been published all over the world, with a new edition due appearing in 2000. David Parlett is a native of South London, where he still resides with his wife and family, and various cats.