Fifteensquared

A few parties in this one, as well as the great Stevie Wonder who wrote the above song. Some penny-dropping moments for me in this one, maybe my brain’s not switched on properly today, or more likely there is some very cunning clueing from Paul.

Across

8 SUBTITLE  SUBT(IT)LE  – sex appeal can be ’it’.

9 AVENUE  A VENUE

10 UKIP  U/KIP  the UK Independence Party

11 HOOTENANNY  HOOT/E/NANNY

14,21 MULTIPLE CHOICE  – MUL(TIP)L/ECHO/ICE – some really tricky wordplay here but I think this is it – think is ’mull’ about clue is ‘tip’ ; hint is ’echo’, ice is cold.

15 ONE-STAR  O(NEST)AR  nest is tree-house, a very clever clue

17 DONATES  DO/NATES   to gift something is to donate and a do is a party, so is ‘nates’ somehow behind?

20 SCENARIO  NORACEIS*

22,12 STEVIE WONDER  STE(VIEW)ONDER* anag of snorted+e (cocaine finally) around (claiming) to see or view. Again it took me a while to see the wordplay here.

23 FOREBODING  FO/RE(BOD)IN/G 

24 FETE  FE(T)E

25 ACTION  ACT(I)ON

26 TOASTING  TO/A/STING  made me laugh!

Down

1 DUCK DOWN  nice double/cryptic def.

2,22 STOP SIGNAL  PAINTSLOGS*

3 ETCHER  ET(C)HER – ether is a number because it numbs!

4 REFORMS  RE/FORMS

5 WATERLOO – another sort of double def which is also an &lit

6 DESALINATE – ALEINSTEAD* 

7 TUNNEL  T(UN)NEL  fast is lent upwards around un.

13 DISINHERIT  INSIDE/R/HIT* again the wordplay took me ages for this one – ground is the anag indicator.

16 AIRBORNE  A/ROBINR*/E

18 EXISTENT  EXI(STEN)T

19  SOCIETY  SO/C/IE/TY  the first clue I got and my favourite one of the puzzle. Society is ‘Thatcher’s myth’ because she famously said there was no such thing as society.