In a relaunch of the paper this has been moved from the inside back page – on P 75 of 96 this week.
Solving time: 15 mins – held up by 18/7 Down and 24 Across which intersected
* = anagram
ACROSS
7 L ((left) ARCHE(r)S BBC serial “everyday story of country folk”
9 CASHBACK Nice cryptic definition. Bread = money
13 TITUS OATES (at outset is)*
14 SEVEN-YEAR-ITCH (severe Cynthia)* A play and later a film from the 1950s, starring Marilyn Munroe
20 (t)RAMP
21 FOURTH “forth” After gold, silver and bronze.
22 GOING S ON The parable of the Prodigal Son (New Testament)
24 D (I OX) ANE
25 EUREKA
DOWN
2 Annie BESANT (absent)* Social reformer (1847-1933)
8 S OUSE Duck in the sense of put in liquid
15 NAILHEAD The less common meaning of boss
18/7D “Do everything possible to ignore a feeling of emptiness and enjoy a novel” (5,4,3,6)
This was cleverly disguised as I’m sure I was not alone looking for a title of a novel with four words in it. But it’s A VOID LIKE THE PLAGUE, The Plague being a novel by Albert Camus.