I managed to get through this cheerfully under 30 minutes, partly because there were not too many unfamiliar subjects, and quite a few clues where the literary connection was not marked. I’m not sure why, but I knew the unlikely-looking name at 12, though I couldn’t have given you a single detail of who s/he was (yes, that ignorant). I seem to be in good company, as noted below, because almost every facet of her life seems to be disputed. 3 was as clear a biff as can be, though it took me a while (and an astute Google) to find out what the Dead Poets Society was doing there.
Here’s my defuscation of the clues, with some extra whimsies thrown in for fun.
Clues, definitions, SOLUTIONS
Across
1. Many colons could be found in a history of this nation (7)
ALGERIA In its fourth entry, Chambers identifies “a colonist, esp a colonial farmer, in Algeria”. Which is what you need to know.
8. The best access for TLS Online subscribers and contributors? (4-5)
READ –WRITE A term from computing related to memory. Probably best if we can do both.
10. Gosh! 1A’s in charge of pain (7)
MYALGIC MY as one of the many interchangeable for gosh, then ALG for Algeria, a standard abbreviation. The IVR is DZ, as it happens. Finish off with I(n) C(harge)
11. A prop, possibly for a stock comedy character (9)
HARLEQUIN Might help if you are familiar with Rugby Union teams , of which the ‘Quins are one, and hence the title for one of their prop forwards. And Harlequin crops up in classic Italian Commedia dell’arte, alongside Columbine.
12. Former spy who wrote an article on forced marriage (5,4)
APHRA BEHN 1640-1689. The word “may” crops up a lot in her Wiki, but she did write the play “the Forc’d Marriage” in 1670, and might have been a spy in Surinam (of all places) earlier in her life.
13. Wipe out earth, after ages (5)
ERASE E for Earth, following ERAS for ages.
15. Behaved badly, or performed in the Cambridge Footlights? (5,2)
ACTED UP If you are at Cambridge University, you are “UP”, and at a good place to join “Footlights” the comedy/review club. The miraculous class of ‘63/4 morphed into I’m sorry I’ll Read That Again – Graeme Garden, Jo Kendall, John Cleese, Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, David Hatch, whence just about everything funny for the next half century.
17. Writer of a particular type that identifies homes for some fourteen characters (7)
STYLIST 14 (d) is (spoiler alert) Animal Farm, populated by pigs among other creatures. Their homes would be on a sty list (arrgh).
18. Hardy’s jolliest content (5)
OLLIE So not he of Casterbridge and Jude, but he of another fine mess, in “familiar” form and barely hidden in the middle word.
19. Aurora Scarlett, Ferber’s girl who laughed (4,5)
DAWN O’HARA, representing the Roman goddess of the dawn and “tomorrow is another day” O’Hara, adding up to Edna Ferber’s eponymous heroine, thus described. You may be more familiar with her works Cimarron, Showboat and Giant, three greats of American cinema adapted from her writings
22. Secret scheme of German and Queen with pressure group (9)
UNDERPLOT German for “and” is UND, Her Maj is ER, pressure is P and group LOT. Clever.
24. Guy holding leading role in Love’s Labours Lost? (7)
COSTARD I think this is guy as in make fun of, which translates that way to COD as in make fun of. The lead is the STAR, and Costard is a smart country bumpkin in LLL who brings to light the word “honorificabilitudinitatibus”. A decent &lit
25. Heard frequently, a German composer who wrote operettas (9)
OFFENBACH from the one about the two dogs and a cat, Bach, Offenbach and (of course) Debussy. Sounds like frequently, and adds Johann Sebastian et al. Wrote Orpheus in the Underworld with the celebrated Can-can, danced by men, I believe, in this version.
26. Lacking sense, one with no objectives in revolution (7)
ANOSMIA A one, NO no, AIMS objectives reversed. Lacking specifically the sense of smell.
Down
1. A Spanish force, joined with the French in a Collins novel (6)
ARMADA (Can’t think of another one). Wilkie Collins wrote the novel Armadale, from which you remove LE, French for, um, the.
2. Senior lady stirring up the old 1930s MGM establishment (5,5)
GRAND HOTEL Indeed a film by MGM with Garbo in it, formed by GRAN, the senior lady, and a mix of THE OLD.
3. Antihero seen on the move in early morning passages of Coleridge, Tennyson and Wordsworth? (8,6)
REGINALD PERRIN, whose walk to work took him through Wordsworth Drive, Tennyson Avenue and Coleridge Close.
4. Cunning that’s shown by Weir of Hermiston (6)
ARCHIE Cunning gives rise to ARCH, and that’s to IE. Eponymous hero of Weir of Harmiston, by RLS
5. The dearest of the dear’s woeful sin, I fear (4,4)
FAIR INES Thankfully an anagram (woeful) of SIN I FEAR. Thomas Hood:
Were there no bonny dames at home,
Or no true lovers here,
That he should cross the seas to win
The dearest of the dear?
6. Deception over a university place (4)
LIEU Deception: LIE, U9niversity). Simple enough
7. Mistakenly intervene, mostly to make up again (8)
REINVENT almost all of intervene, “mistakenly” presented.
9. Library in the same place as your heart, according to Yeats (5,2,5,2)
WHERE MY BOOKS GO William Butler Yeats’ poem:
All the words that I utter,
And all the words that I write,
Must spread out their wings untiring,
And never rest in their flight,
Till they come where your sad, sad heart is,
And sing to you in the night,
Beyond where the waters are moving,
Storm-darken’d or starry bright.
14. I’m included in very orderly work in the country that was ruled by Napoleon (6,4)
ANIMAL FARM I’M is captured by ANAL for very orderly (in this clue), and followed by “work in the country” FARM
15. “For this description of thine honesty? — him! For me, he’s more and more a cat” (All’s Well That Ends Well) (1,3,4)
A POX UPON Uttered by Bertram, Count of Roussillon in this precise formulation.
16. Crap deal negotiated for a vehicle that should be cheap (5,3)
PEDAL CAR, an anagram (negotiated) of CRAP DEAL.
20. Broadcast viewer’s greeting (6)
WOTCHA If you were to hear watcher, for viewer, over the radio, you might be forgiven (just) for thinking of the (Cockney?) greeting, often spelt watcher, possibly a contraction of what cheer?
21. Former French colony, a rural paradise — that’s not right (6)
ACADIA Arcadia is the rural paradise lauded by Poussin, but without its R(ight) it’s a former French bit of Canada.
23. “Anyone happy in this age and place / Is — or corrupt.” (Roy Fuller) (4)
DAFT Guess or look up.
I used to live very close to what was once ACADIA (still a university of that name there). In fact, while I was living there I got a visit from a certain Broteas!, who I’m sure toured around that region.