I'm not sure Brendan as I only refer to the book itself. I think it might be worth you buying the set now! I've got The Chambers Dictionary 12th Edition (Thumb-Indexed) I think that was about £50 but it was a present. I also have the Chambers Crossword Dictionary, which is like a big thesaurus and often a great starting place, the version I have of that is a reprint in 2008. It has quite good explanations of cryptic terms at the front.