I found this pretty accessible (for which read I knew some of the information needed) and took around 34 minutes to solve. It contains probably one of the easiest quotation clues ever to grace this space, along the lines of “to be or___” or “__ __ wherefore art thou __”. Did anyone need to look up the 3 letter opera clue at the bottom of the grid? Nonetheless, this was the usual GK expanding exercise that we expect of the TLS – what a great story is connected with the Asteroid and the personal habits of the author in16. And some fine red herrings, none better than the Dylan Thomas reference in 6d.
Here’s how I loosened the raspberry pip of truth from the hollow tooth of benevolent deception
Clues, definitions, SOLUTIONS
Across
1 A virgin bride, apparently, is novel (5,2,5)
WOMAN IN WHITE
Popular culture suggests a virgin bride wears white even if popular practice suggest white is not necessarily a reliable indicator. Wilkie Collins wrote the best known similarly titled novel, though he put a THE on the front. Perhaps the lack of an indefinite article on “novel” might suggest dropping the THE.
9 Writer of The Little Foxes or Lord of the Flies? (7)
HELLMAN Lillian H wrote the play here named, and Lord of the flies translates to the gloriously onomatopoeic Beelzebub, one of the many Semitic names for His Satanic Majesty, so “Hell man”
10 Sailors at sea in a water-covered world (7)
SOLARIS Stanislaw Lem’s SF novel explores the notion of a sentient planet, though I doubt he picked the name just because it’s an anagram of SAILORS
11 Environmental writer with Catholic guilt, I’m told (5)
GREEN Graham Greene (who fits the clue’s description pretty well) lends the sound of his name to our answer.
12 Asteroid 5099’s one with excellent nitrogen deposits (4,5)
IAIN BANKS Not a novel title, but a real asteroid renamed for the late SF author. Wordplay: one: I, excellent: AI. N(itrogen), deposits: BANKS.
14 Financially, East Egg folk boggle my noodle (3,5)
OLD MONEY An anagram (boggle) of MY NOODLE. East Egg in The Great Gatsby is the Long Island home of the historically wealthy, as opposed to the upstart rich of West Egg.
16 Bed-bound writer for Time to cover America (6)
PROUST For gives PRO, Time T, and America US supplies the filler. I did not know before now that Proust was bedbound, initially by choice, later under the compulsion of illness.
19 The Poet Lady Charlotte a Westminster Review editor read aloud (6)
ELLIOT Lady Charlotte Elliot the poet, George Eliot, one L, (Mary Ann Evans) the perhaps better known writer who at one time was assistant editor on the Westminster Review, founded by Jezza Bentham, which ceased publication in 1914
20 Popular children flatter writer of unposted letters! (8)
INCHFAWN Fay Inchfawn (Elizabeth Rebecca Ward) was a prolific writer of popular verse including a collection called Unposted Letters. IN translates popular, Children contribute their CH, and FAWN stands in for flatter. To understand what popular poetry is, try these samples.
22 Curry again? It’s where Mr Bones is headed in Timbuktu (9)
BALTIMORE Balti is a curry invented in Brum (allegedly) and again provides MORE. The novella Timbuktu (Paul Auster) features a dog called Mr Bones who is heading with his ailing master for Baltimore. Paul Auster lives in Brooklyn.
23 City set taken aback about Mr Bumble’s ass? (5)
LEGAL L.A. GEL (set) backwards. In Oliver Twist, when informed that “the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction”, Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, replies:”If the law supposes that, the law is a ass – a idiot”.
25 Tricky situation with cunning supplier of a staircase in Surrey! (7)
STEWART A STEW (tricky situation), joins ART (cunning) to give us J. I .M. Stewart, author of a collection of 5 novels where Surrey is an Oxford College and the staircase (a set of rooms in Oxspeak) the setting.
27 EU to prosecute a male revolutionary and swineherd (7)
EUMAEUS Construct it from EU, then SUE and M(ale) reversed. Odysseus’ pig-keeper.
28 “Cry ‘Havoc’ And let slip —” (Shakespeare) (3,4,2,3)
THE DOGS OF WAR. A quotation any fule kno.
Down
1 He loved Bosie in a natural state, they say (5)
WILDE How true, how true. Young Queensbury’s somdomite friend sounds an awful lot like WILD
2 Reminder for Lettie Colston: send out memoir to men (7,4)
MEMENTO MORI an anagram of memoir to men and the title of a book by Muriel Spark in which our elderly heroine is in receipt of unpleasant letters on the theme.
3 Criminal Genet’s refusal left one church tense (3,5)
NONLICET Genet is a French person, so his refusal is NON. Follow with L(eft), I, C(hurch of) E(ngland) and T(ense).
4 It was her beast twice seen in Finch’s home (6)
NESBIT Tempting to go via Atticus, but this is just Edith Nesbit’s IT from the Five Children and.., and BI twice inside NEST, home. The Finch is just a bird. Or a red herring, if you’d prefer
5 End of file deleted in restore? Bloody computer! (3)
HAL The accidentally murderous computer from 2001. Remove the end of filE from HEAL, restore.
6 Book by Dylan Thomas, his first: a natural novel (9)
TARANTULA Dylan the Nobel prize winner is our writer, Thomas is only there for the T (his first) and the rest is supplied by the letters of A NATURAL.
7 Theatre reworking Goethe with leads from La Bohème (3,5)
THE GLOBE take the letters of Goethe, and the L and B from La Boheme, mix thoroughly.
8 Murdoch, who’s no Romeo, enthrals southern goddess (4)
ISIS Discard the writer’s R(omeo), add in its place S(outhern) for the Goddess
13 “— Jones made his money in mines, / And although he has left us his fame still shines” (William Gay) (11)
BARTHOLOMEW As spelled in the poem “The Sorrowful Fate of Bartholomew Jones”
15 Poetry-writing cop hides gall after being sacked (9)
DALGLIESH From the ‘Tec novels by P D James, an anagram of HIDES GALL.
17 Freak about drugs? Not as much as Holmes’s bowing! (8)
TUNELESS Freak is NUT, which is turned “about”, added to E (drugs) and LESS for “not as much”. Whether “tuneless” is an accurate assessment of Holmes playing is moot: Watson has him ‘an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer, but a composer of no ordinary merit’, but there is an early reference to him scraping carelessly upon a fiddle. More recent writers tend to play the “tuneless” idea, but Conan Doyle doesn’t appear to.
18 Half of a B. S. Johnson book entertains nurse from LA (8)
ANGELENO B S Johnson wrote Albert Angelo. Discard Albert as the unwanted half, insert E(nrolled) N(urse). Isn’t ther something about Angelenos not liking being called Angelenos by outsiders?
21 In America producer volunteers to cut track (6)
SONTAG Susan Sontag created the book In America. The usual volunteers, the TA, insert themselves into SONG for track.
22 Cream cut with soprano who sang “Summertime”? (4)
BESS Cream is BEST, knock off the T and add S(oprano). Bess, you is my woman now from Porgy and Bess.
24 “Good always overcomes resistance” – a feminist writer (5)
GREER As far as I know, she didn’t write that, but G(ood) E’ER overcomes R(esistance ) is a crossword clue, innit?
26 Unending opera? Help! (3)
AID They don’t come easier in the TLS. The opera is Verdi’s AIDA. Guess what to do to find your answer. Well done!
Read “Hydrogen Sonata” by Iain Banks the other week and much enjoyed it. Very witty and inventive. You can’t help but warm to any advanced intergalactic civilisation that gives its space warships names like “You Call This Clean?” or “Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In”
It was news to me that Holmes’ violin playing was tuneless. It occurs to me that I don’t think I’ve ever seen the current incarnation pick one up, never mind play it.
Edited at 2017-04-14 07:41 am (UTC)