Six authors are seated in a railway carriage, three on one side facing three on the other side. Their names are Mr Black, Mr Brown, Mr Grey, Mr Green, Mr Pink and Mr White (yes, Pink is an unusual surname!). They are, but not necessarily respectively, an essayist, a historian, a humourist, a novelist, a playwright and a poet. Each is reading a book written by one of the other authors in the railway carriage.
- Mr Black is reading essays,
- Mr Grey is reading a book by the author facing him,
- Mr Brown is sitting between the essayist and the humourist,
- Mr Pink is sitting next to the playwright,
- The essayist is sitting opposite the historian,
- Mr Green is reading plays,
- Mr Brown is the novelist's brother-in-law,
- Mr Black, who occupies a corner seat, has no interest in history,
- Mr Green is sitting opposite the novelist,
- Mr Pink is reading a book written by the humourist,
- Mr White never reads poetry.
Can you identify all six authors?
From 3 we can see that the essayist and the humourist are sitting in corner seats on one side of the carriage. And from 5 we know that the historian is in a corner seat opposite the essayist. Which leaves one corner seat unknown.
From 1 we know that Mr Black is not the essayist, and from 8 we can tell he is not the the historian. Also from 8 we know he is in a corner seat, so he must be the humourist or sitting opposite the humourist.
From 7 Mr Brown is not the novelist, so from 9 we can tell that Mr Green is not sitting opposite Mr Brown in the other middle seat. Also he can't be the essayist or the historian (they are opposite each other) nor can he be opposite the humourist.
So Mr Green is the humourist, who is opposite Mr Black, who is the novelist.
In a grid of names against writing specialisms we can cross of many possibilities, leaving Mr White as the essayist, Mr Pink as the historian, Mr Brown is the poet and Mr Grey is the playwright.