Tupu, my favourite Dorothy Parker is “This is not a book to be put aside lightly, but hurled with great force.”

As for the crossword, Paul has emerged as the true heir of Araucaria. There is no higher praise.

I thought it was a good puzzle, but my Pinc wasn’t that happy.
We didn’t understand the MARA bit in 10ac, and to be honest I’m not sure whether I like this. It is certainly original, but ‘quite subtle’ as post #24 tells us – just don’t know. I am someone who thinks in kilometres, anyway.
Another of those brand names in 16d (HP)?

The “A to B” device was as such very nice, we thought, but the wording? Well, not sure. “… getting from A to B …”?

Hardest part for us surely the NW [which, btw, is often the case in a crossword - wonder why].
Best clues? Probably FLEA CIRCUS and the nice one at 8d (&lit, as Geoff says?).
And what a silly, typical Paulian surface at 12ac.

At the risk of joining the Pit-Knickers, OP ART might just about tag on to the tail ends of Modernism (c.f. Robert Hughes and “The Shock Of The New”), but it is by no means “modern” in any real or stylistic sense.

Paul: Many, many thanks for living upto your reputation.

Uncle Yap: I would be delighted to supply and sup Glenmorangie with you anytime, but I would have to forego the dubious delights of bog-trotting with you through leech-infested swamps….the leeches might poison themselves.

Some great clues – why has nobody commented that 8dn is a good &lit?

I toyed with MAIDENHEAD (ie ‘cherry’) for 10ac – it is a Paul after all – but got there in the end. ‘Around thirteen miles’ for MARA is clever (I haven’t come across it before). Pity the surface reading of the clue is completely nonsensical. Araucaria is well known for his often strange surface readings, but they always have a kind of surreal logic. This doesn’t!

I enjoyed the pairing of some clues (26 shillings and 7 pence, 16d and 18 sauces, cricketing terms in 17 & 8, and ducks in 4a/8d/18d).

Failed to get 11a and 2d took a while to dawn on me as I was using a germanic ‘sht’ sound in my head while pondering it, but I loved it when I got it.

The explanations were very helpful, so thanks UY, DrG and Paul. I’ll give the quickie a go, thanks Stella.

I also got held up by the top left (e.g. hadn’t come across Lambert before). I’ve since had a look at the various SI and non-SI units used to measure light. Quite interesting – not knowing much physics I hadn’t realised that there are so many measures, and that there’s a difference between luminance and illuminance.