Themed as usual by the master. Familiar with both books, so it was quite a quick solve, 17 mins. Great clues as always.
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 CH (from chess) ARLES ref Charles Dickens with 28
5 GEORGE George = automatic pilot (aircraft) and character in ‘Three Men in a Boat’ by Jerome K Jerome is, I think, what is referred to here ref George Orwell with 27 so top and bottom row give the theme.
9 MARK TWAIN
11 DAMN ALL “Dam awl”!
12 DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON KO’d = down and out 25 = two cities (the same two as in Dickens’ book)
13 STEALTH (the last)* BO (MB) ERS Boers = our enemies once
21 A TALE OF TWO CITIES
24 NUM BEST
26 Sir Francis D RAKE
27 OR WELL It’s also the name of a river
28 DICKENS (Snicked)* dickens = the devil
DOWN
1 CLOUD (could with L moving) bankruptcY
2 AL (TIME) TER ie time in alter not alter (change) in time (tempo)
3 LANTANA Hidden
4 SIMPL (ET) ON Simplon pass in the Alps et = and (too) in French
5 Al GORE D
6 OUT SWAM(p)
7 GHANA Hidden
10 NUDISM (dim sun)*
14 BULL-NOSED (bell sound)*
15 EXONERATE (no tree axe)*
16 UP CAST
18 STERIL (Lister)* theatrE
19 NO (MAD) IC(e)
20 A (THEN) S as = Roman copper coin
22 A M(O)UR Rum “written up” ie reversed in a down clue
23 Fish RILL
Great stuff, as always.
I was a bit confused by 12/8/7 until I saw the blog.
The online version has “2” instead of “25”.
Very unlike the Indy…
25 makes a lot more sense, although I did convince myself the 2 was referring to the fact that he was down and out in two places. It was a very neat idea to get the two books to clue each other. I didn’t follow 5 across, but it was obvious once the theme had been established.
Excellent stuff as always from Virgilius, but two questions:
a) Why, in 26ac, is Drake a pirate captain?
b) Why has Virgilius introduced Mark Twain? The name suggests the twos of both Dickens’s and Orwell’s titles, but is there something more going on?
a) Drake was a privateer, which is a sort of state-sponsored pirate. He certainly hijacked Spanish ships and the Spanish considered him a notorious pirate (even putting a price on his head).
b) Not that I noticed.