Sunday Times Jumbo Cryptic No 5091 by David McLean — all unwrapped

This fruitcake is chock-full of seasonal nuttiness, with a good number of clues that wouldn’t work nearly as well at any other time, which makes it generally quite easy. The few unusual words and more difficult parsings really stood out.

Sunday Times Cryptic No 5087 by David McLean — cutting words

After my FOI, I worked all the four longest (12-letter) clues. I profited from that flying start and had this all completed within a comfortable timeframe, though two answers stubbornly resisted parsing. Had to watch my fingers—there are some sharp devices here.