14:06. Another lovely puzzle from Robert with a decidedly literary flavour. The answers across the top and bottom rows set the scene, and then a number of clues (9ac, 17ac, 21ac, 1dn, 7dn, 19dn) have a literary flavour of one sort of another. Often the effort of fitting a theme like this into a puzzle results in clunky clueing, but nothing of the sort here. Delightful stuff.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Angels after falling in beside monsters |
| DEMONS – contained in ‘beside monsters’. | |
| 4 | Unwavering sound from a speaker |
| STRAIGHT – sounds like ‘strait’. | |
| 9 | A novelist was ousted and unfrocked |
| AUSTEN – ‘unfrock’ (remove the outer letters of) ‘ |
|
| 10 | Family transport silver through the old city |
| CARTHAGE – CAR, TH(AG)E. | |
| 12 | Gas that’s clean yet bursting with energy |
| ACETYLENE – (CLEAN YET, E)*, or possibly (CLEAN YET)*, E. | |
| 13 | Grow back |
| REAR – DD. | |
| 15 | Skimp on insuring a fellow spy |
| UNDERCOVER AGENT – UNDER-COVER, A, GENT. | |
| 17 | Sleuth I unnerved unravelling a Poirot novel |
| EVIL UNDER THE SUN – (SLEUTH I UNNERVED)*. | |
| 20 | Stylish ending cut from Marx? |
| CHIC – CHIC |
|
| 21 | Poetic line about the vacated rug business returning |
| OCTAMETER – reversal of RE, T |
|
| 24 | Again constructs puzzle that’s regularly filled in |
| REBUILDS – REBU( |
|
| 25 | Listened to one after another shut up |
| INTERN – sounds like ‘in turn’. | |
| 26 | Bookish learner, popular away from course |
| LITERARY – L, IT |
|
| 27 | Aboard ship, waste facilities |
| SKILLS – S(KILL)S. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Creator of a scene about little Gertrude? |
| DRAMA QUEEN – nice definition! In the one-word cryptic hint the drama in question is Hamlet, of course. | |
| 2 | Rum, say, imbibed by crazy fool |
| MISLEAD – M(ISLE)AD. Rum is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides. | |
| 3 | Indigent born outside of Derry |
| NEEDY – NEE (born), D |
|
| 5 | Private ways of working setters cared about |
| TRADE SECRETS – (SETTERS CARED)*. | |
| 6 | In the style of a US subject’s wake |
| AFTERMATH – AFTER (in the style of), MATH. | |
| 7 | Author first to go on about “a poor player” |
| GRAHAME – G |
|
| 8 | Dainty flower that’s died off |
| TWEE – TWEE |
|
| 11 | The world’s longest sleeve? |
| RECORD HOLDER – a definition by example incorporating a cryptic hint. | |
| 14 | Travellers from Iran sent it abroad |
| ITINERANTS – (IRAN SENT IT)*. | |
| 16 | Hurricane dispersing, becoming more coarse |
| RAUNCHIER – (HURRICANE)*. | |
| 18 | Trendy greeting British relations discourage |
| INHIBIT – IN, HI, B, IT (nudge wink etc). | |
| 19 | A poet’s place, famously |
| SITWELL – SIT, WELL. | |
| 22 | A capital opening to sell fur coats |
| MINSK – MIN(S |
|
| 23 | Older appeal cases for examination |
| ORAL – O |
|
Once again, a great puzzle from Myrtilus.I especially liked AUSTEN, SKILLS, MINSK, & INTERN.
Knowing very little of Hamlet—or any other of his works come to that—I guessed DRAMA QUEEN from the literal clueing having never heard of Gertrude, but now I know I think it’s very clever. I entered DEMONS from the literal and only saw the hidden afterwards. AUSTEN was very well disguised between three words. Took me an age to see how MINSK worked with the devious ‘fur coats’ misleading me into thinking there was no insertion character for the ‘s’, before separating ‘fur’ and ‘coats’ and seeing the light. Quite a mix of anagrams, hiddens and DIY material but a fun crossword. COD to GRAHAME.
Thanks K.
40 minutes. Saw MINSK immediately but lost time seeing how the wordplay worked because I was distracted by ‘fur coats’. Lift and separate!
Me too. See above.
‘Fur coats’–indeed, the whole surface–is why I listed MINSK above.
I’m a slow solver so don’t record my time, but I got all the clues and thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. Rather liked 12a as I do a bit of recreational oxyacetylene welding. Acetylene is indeed full of energy being one of the most calorific gasses commonly encountered and it burns cleanly. Almost an &lit. as well as a regular clue. Very neat.
Thank you K and Robert. Like Richard I am a slow solver, usually chewing the cud for a day over a full cryptic, rarely with immediate insight and only once taking under an hour. I parsed everything except DRAMA QUEEN, knowing the answer from the first part of the clue but not calling on the distant memory of Gertrude being Hamlet’s mum. I even took the the surface of little Gertrude and checked the height of Gertrude Lawrence and Gertrude Stein, ho ho. You do find out some interesting stuff when you go down these rabbit holes.
Talk about ‘misleading’ definitions! 2d was my last in, and I kicked myself when the penny dropped. Brilliant clue, along with so many others, though SITWELL was bifd from crossers – I would never have got there otherwise. AUSTEN, my POI, was also terrific. I finally arrived at the answer when I gave up trying to make sense of it and just did what the clue told me to! I never even saw the indications top and bottom that Keriothe mentions, and I’m afraid I failed to make the Gertrude connection in DRAMA QUEEN, despite having seen Hamlet more than once.
Hamlet being my very favourite play rendered 1d a doddle, but I came to it late, and only after I’d twigged that DEMONS was a hidden. It was 7d that “did for me’, as the cluing was very un-straight! I sort-of cheated for the title of the Poirot novel, as there are so many of them, but getting those crossers surely helped with a lot of the remaining clues. ACETYLENE straight in, followed by NEEDY and TRADE SECRETS; too many really good clues to pick out CODs. My type of puzzle, with a very literary bent.
Mine too. Lear a close second.
Thanks Robert and keriothe
Slipped a week with this one, taking a couple of sessions and an hour and a quarter to complete it. Lots of entertaining clues, especially liking the two longer across ones – unravelling the anagram of the unknown Agatha Christie novel and the clever make up of the ‘spy’.
Tripped myself up for a short time by hastily writing LITERATE in at 26a, delaying RECORD HOLDER from going in.
Finished in the SW corner with SITWELL, OCTAMETER (a new term) and INTERN the last one in.