Solving time: about 2 hours

At last, a fairly gentle Inquisitor, which I should really have finished off even faster – and earlier! The thematic answers were to have one letter replaced, and then to be altered in some other unspecified way. A good rule in cases like this is to consider the simplest options first. Sure enough, it fairly soon became clear that the second alteration was reversal, which has the right number of letters to match the “original letters, in clue order, spell” bit of the preamble. Reversing words ties with anagrams as probably the commonest tranformation used.

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Solving time: 15 mins, one missing (3dn)

Another puzzle with an epic answer, this time 14 words long (perhaps certain compilers at the Guardian are having a bit of a competition?), and beautifully integrated with all the parts symmetrically placed. I didn’t know the song, which made the whole puzzle a difficult solve for me, not assisted by initial wrong answers at 22dn and 27dn and a knowledge gap at 3dn.

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Very Nimrod. I’m fairly sure all the answers are right but I have my doubts about 8A and 4D is still a mystery to me. Read the rest of this entry »