TLS Crossword 1158 by Myrtilus – January 13, 2017

I was rather hoping it wouldn’t be my turn to do this one because I had a glaring gaffe at 12D.  But after Zabadak’s Inaugural phantom phenom blog on January 20th, it fell to my turn and self had to be pulled together.  Myrtilus successfully mislead me as to which author we were talking about by way of a theme, and when you careen off the wrong exit ramp from the highway you can end up almost anywhere.  I got off to a clipping start, having spotted his signature twinned clues at 1 and 4A quickly, and it was all downhill after that for a ho hum error-filled 48 minutes.

Definitions in italics underlined.  Answers in bold caps.

Across
1.  One time writer’s countryman (4)
SCOT.  Sir Walter Scott, the Scotsman, but with one T[ime].  Twinned with 4A.
4.  “Offshore author” sounds apt for Durrell (10)
FITZGERALD.  Not F. Scott here but Penelope, whose novel “Offshore” won the 1979 Booker Prize.  FITZ=homophone for “fits”=apt.  It wasn’t Lawrence so it had to be Gerald. 
9.  Crime writer put off by stabbing (6)
DEXTER.  Colin, creator of Endeavour Morse.  I for one prefer the tv series to the books.  X=by, contained in (stabbing) DETER=put off.
10, 4A wrote of one place to find it (8)
BOOKSHOP.  1978 novel by Penelope, and where you might buy it. 
11.  This US laureate is not minor or obscure (8)
TONI MORRISON.  Anagram (obscure) of IS NOT MINOR OR.  Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.
13.  William of Baskerville visited these cooks to hold a bible class (8)
FRIARIES.  FRIES=cooks holding R[eligious] I[nstruction]=bible class.  William is the Franciscan friar in Umberto Eco’s mystery The Name Of The Rose.
15.  Rudely, girls go topless around the French coves (6)
INLETS.  [B]INTS=girls surround LE=the in French.  Rude word which I’d never heard until final year of University law.  Must have led a sheltered life. 
16. Little people’s author brought back only Harry and Hermione (6)
NORTON.  Mary, author of The Borrowers series of children’s books.  NOT RON (Weasley) reversed (brought back) from the Harry Potter books.
18.  Children‘s author, of Worzel, left hearts oddly lifted (8)
TODDLERS.  It took me a while to unravel this.  Barbara Euphan Todd was the author of a 1930s and 40s series of children’s books about a scarecrow called Worzel Gummidge.  TODD=author.  L=left.  [h]E[a]R[t]S.  I stuck for a bit thinking there was a separate significance to “lifted”.
20.  Switching mint candy for Christmas pudding was her idea (5,7)
NANCY MITFORD.  Nice one.  Anagram (switching) of MINT CANDY FOR.  Christmas Pudding was her second novel and in later years she regarded it as juvenilia and was reluctant to let it be re-published. 
23.  Who chose the lead singing part and cropped bits? (8)
BASSANIO.  In Merchant Of Venice he was the one of Portia’s suitors who correctly chose the lead casket with her portrait inside (the other caskets were silver and gold).  BASS=singing part.  AN[d] cropped.  IO=IT bits.
24.  Atkinson made this PI have too much cheese around (6)
BRODIE.  Jackson Brodie was the privae eye protagonist in a series of novels by Kate Atkinson.  OD=have too much, surrounded by BRIE=cheese. 
25.  A writer could have one pint without lines by Tess getting muddled (10)
BESTSELLER.  BEER=pint surrounding (without) anagram (getting muddled) of TESS and LL-lines.
26.  In times past, back end of chancel (4)
APSE.  Hidden in [tim]ES PA[st] reversed (back).

Down
2.  He re-imagined Notting Hill converted to trenches (10)
CHESTERTON.  G.K.  The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a futuristic 1904 novel set in 1984.  Anagram (converted) of TO TRENCHES. 
3.  Giant caught out by a fairy (7)
TITANIA.  TITANI[c]=giant, removing C=caught (out) with A.  Shakespeare from MND.
4.  Backtracking of an island assembly (5)
FORUM.  OF reversed (backtracking) with RUM=Hebridean island. 
5. Knights may appear in these, thanks to poets (7)
TABARDS.  TA=thanks.  BARDS=poets.  A kind of heraldic surcoat or gilet.  What americans call a vest. 
6. Revered or famous poem, Gray initially fibbed about (9)
GLORIFIED.  G[ray], then LIED=fibbed containing (about) OR and IF=famous Kipling poem.
7.  Attar came up with work that’s timeless (4,3)
ROSE OIL.  ROSE=came with [t]OIL=work dropping the T.
8.  One responsible for Brunetti’s Christmas being over (4)
LEON.  NOEL=Christmas reversed (over).  American author Donna Leon wrote a series of Venetian crime novels featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti.
12.  A 4A piece in a paper backing socialist ends (2,8)
AT FREDDIES.  1982 novel by Penelope Fitzgerald.  At first I thought my wrong’un was 22d and it was only when I went back to write up the blog that I sorted this out.  A TF=F[inancial] T[imes]=paper reversed (backing).  RED=socialist.  DIES=ends.  [I had St. Brigid’s, and no of course it didn’t parse.  And naturally I can neither find nor remember the phantom F. scott reference I used to justify it.]
14,  4A left this pub drunk once before church (9)
INNOCENCE.  1985 novel by Penelope Fitzgerald.  INN=pub.  Anagram (drunk) of ONCE.  CE=church.  Continuing my confession of error, I thought this might be a reference to a theme of F. Scott – loss of innocence.
17.  Bats star in the start of The Passage (7)
TRANSIT.  Anagram (bats) of STAR IN, with start of T[he].
18. Two parts in Lear, but not the poor idiot (7)
TOMFOOL.  In the play Edgar, son of Gloucester, disguises himself as Poor Tom when choused out of his inheritance by his bastard half-brother Edmund.  Omit the “poor”.  The unnamed Fool is another part in the play.
19.  Sign a short bloke up for a part in Il Trovatore (7)
LEONORA.  LEO=astrological sign..  With A RON=short bloke reversed (up).  She is the noble lady in Verdi’s opera.
21.  Rome’s split by this group bringing Caesar at last (5)
TIBER.  The river runs through the middle of Rome.  TRIBE=group – move the R (last in Caesar) to the end (bringing down).
22.  An Aussie writer’s detailed mind (4)
CARE.  I thought this must have been my mistake – it wasn’t.  Peter Carey is the author, removing the last letter (detailed).