This was a fairly straightforward puzzle, which I initially made more difficult by insisting that 16d was TATTLER and 23d was ACRE. They aren’t.
Music is “Dead Bodies” by Air – the best “air drums” music ever
ACROSS
1 ARTEMIS – (IMASTER)* Artemis is the Roman name for the greek goddess Diana
5 CA(DAVE)R
9 SAC-CHAR-IN
10 NARKS – SNARK with first letter last (Lewis Carroll very much in vogue at the moment)
11 NAAN – didn’t get the wordplay
12 Straightforward anagram, omitted at my discretion
14 CANNAE – A battle and a Glaswegian’s inability to cope
15 EX WORKS
16 NIT-RATE
18 CO(R)PSE
20 B(OARD)ROOMS – i.e “brooms” with (road)* inside
21 S-CAT
24 LUPIN(e)
25 VENER-ABLE – as in “the Venerable Bede” (never)* with “able”
26 S-PRAYER
27 YAN-GTSE – (ANY GETS)* –
DOWN
1 (p)ARSON – Trad. crossword clue
2 TOC(CAT)A
3 MOHR – sounds like “more”
4 SERVICE REVOLVER – reference to the “Lazy Susan” style of dumb waiter, rather than the little lift
5 CON-SCIENCE MONEY – “CON” is “for”, “SCIENCE MONEY” is what the government give for research
6 DON-KEY WORK
7 V(ERNIE)R – a scale for precise measurement. I think the device is ERNIE (Premium Bonds computer) and the wise old queen was Victoria (VR). Was she really so wise ?
8 RI-SINGS
13 ONE AND ONLY – (ANY E LONDON)*
16 NIBBLES – why “publisher” ? A writer is a nib and nibbles are titbits
17 T-RAPPER
19 SACK-BUT
22 THE-ME
23 O-RAN – as in “none ran”
On-line version says it is Chifonie.
11ac Naaman was commander in chief of the armies of Benhadad of Damascus. He was also a leper.
The queen is VR but she’s not wise, ERNIE is (as in Morecambe and …), and ‘device’ is part of the definition.
Geoffrey Bles is the publisher.
In 5 down why is “CON” “for”? I got the answer but not quite the wordplay.
The internet tells me there is a publisher called Geoffrey Bles.
CON SCIENCE = for research … that’s the way I saw it!
… and obviously wrongly … getting my pros and cons mixed up.