HANGMAN IS A GREAT GAME, and can be played anywhere. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen. But the winning strategy is counterintuitive.

Most players will give you a long word to guess, on the assumption that choosing long words means you have many more letters to find and so will lose more points as you try to guess them. In fact, the opposite is true: the shorter the word, the more letters your opponent guesses will be wrong.

My favourite Hangman words are Lynx, Rhythm and Twelfths. And, if you’re feeling mischievous, Fjord.