I’m afraid I had to google this one: they’re all equally [un]familiar to me!

So do I and so you should be! It’s always good to hear how others, too, go chasing wild geese or red herrings.

It must be quite frustrating for you not being able to join in the discussion on the day but don’t forget that the blogger, if no one else, always sees your comments, so keep them coming!

As usual a bit late from me as this was the Guardian Weekly puzzle.

I just wanted to give you an example of how it is possible to convince oneself of the correctness of a wrong answer.

I was aware that there were several authors lurking around the puzzle, and I had done only about 5 or 6 clues. Two of these were 2D TEMPURA and 4D ATTIRED, which gave me -U—R for 12A.
I therefore solved this as ‘AUTHOR’ which seemed to fit the theme of the puzzle. I ‘easily’ parsed this as well as ‘Clothes with gold’ being gold both at the front and back of a solution, so AU at the front and OR at the back. This left ‘TH’ to explain. I had this as ‘One of many’ as in Thirtie[th] Ten[th] N[th] etc.

Okay it didn’t have a separate definition left for ‘AUTHOR’ but as it was a run-on clue with 13A that started with ‘Write’, I thought it was just Auracaria’s quirkiness. So in went ‘AUTHOR’. I was very pleased with myself.

Because of that I struggled mightily for anything that would fit 3D even though I could see ‘GRANT’ as an obvious solution, I felt it had to be something else. Eventually, after getting STYGIAN I realised it had to be GRANT so that my lovely ‘AUTHOR’ must be wrong. I then got the correct answer of SUITOR.

I actually like my solution and am proud of it! [Even though it is wrong].

Great blog as usual from you.

Just say ‘Uly-sses’ to yourself.:-)

I think “out of town” is “encouraging car use” in that if something is out of town one is more likely to have to drive oneself there rather than take the train or bus or bicycle.

I really enjoyed ATTIRED >> OVERALL, too.

Thanks Eileen for some parsing I wasn’t solid on (ATie, for example), and Mr. A. for yet another treat. Someday perhaps I’ll get the “SSES” bit…

Saying this crossword wasn’t good, is a bit harsh, isn’t it.
But I still think that it didn’t give a fair chance to solvers who didn’t find any access to the theme. The clues ánd the solutions in the grid were so much linked that it was nearly impossible to open up the puzzle.

That hardly anyone else had that problem, was because the theme was cracked, which makes solving very different and certainly more enjoyable.

Of all the regulars we were probably the Unhappy Few today.
Can happen.

When you don’t get any answer related to the theme (as we did), this crossword is extremely inaccessible.
Enhanced by the fact that there is quite some ‘iffy’ clueing along the way.

Discussion on the Odyssey and other nursery rhymes ( ) is fine by me, but please do realise that it’s not really relevant to solvers that are not familiar with the theme [probably at least half of the Guardian readers].

Even on hindsight (after kicking ourselves), we thought this wasn’t a good crossword.
Clever but not good.