Some nice clues, but – dare I say it – one or two whose surfaces are pretty vacuous. As usual, I’m afraid. Azed has produced some wonderful stuff over the years, but nowadays we are increasingly often fobbed off with things that those who post on ‘Times for the Times’ would rip apart. If I had produced ‘Gardens maybe seen in Oxford, first to last’ (HOES, 33ac) or ‘Matching outfits tons witness in new presentation’ (TWINSETS, 4dn) as possibilities for one of Azed’s competitions I certainly wouldn’t have sent them in. These clues are perfectly sound – and Azed can’t remotely be challenged on this score – but what do they mean? Read the rest of this entry »

Another brilliant offering from the maestro; I particularly enjoyed the references to the two very different books which feature in this puzzle.  Solving time: about an hour and a half, except for 22 down, which eluded me for a day.  I shall be away and offline when this post is published and won’t be able to respond to any comments or queries until Sunday afternoon.

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