Financial Times 13,952 by Gozo

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It is a good blogging week for me, first I get an alphabetical jigsaw from Araucaria in the Guardian and now a themed puzzle from Gozo. What a treat! All the across solutions in this puzzle are…er…

novels? – but 19 across is an epic poem written two thousand years before the novel form was invented
films? – Erewhon and Romany Rye are is yet to be filmed (Greenmantle has been filmed for TV)
tales of daring and adventure? – mostly, but then Anita Brookner plots are ‘timid character fails to grasp opportunity’ so just the opposite really

Lets just say the theme is ‘literature’, and leave it at that. Thank you Gozo.

Hold the mouse pointer over any clue number to read the clue.

Across
9 See 10
10,9 DEATH ON THE NILE (THE HEADLINE NOT)* – Agatha Christie
11 THE FALL double definition – a lapse into sin and autumn in the USA – Albert Camus
12 THE DEEP DE (some, French) in THEE (you, once=archaic) and Priest – Helen Dunmore and others
13,23 BEN HUR BEN (Scottish mountain) HURdle (obstacle, only half) – Lew Wallace
14 GREENMANTLE ENLARGEMENT* – John Buchan
17 HOTEL DU LAC Husband and (CALLED OUT)* anagram=in agony – Anita Brookner
18 SHE summer’S HEat – Rider Haggard
19 ILIAD Independent DAIL (Irish parliament) returned – Homer
21 THE CRUEL SEA HERCULES* in TEA (meal) – Nicholas Monsarrat
23 See 13
25 EREWHON WE’RE (we are) reversed and HON (honorable, title for bigwig) – Samuel Butler
27 SHIRLEY SH (quiet) I (one, Roman numeral) Right LEY (meadow) and also Shirley Temple – Charlotte Bronte
28 See 17
29 ROMANY RYE ANY (some) by RY (railway) in ROME (capital) – George Borrow
Down
1 HOT TUB HO (house and BUTT (cask) reversed – definition is ‘bath’
2 ETHERNET (THREE TEN)* – type of computer network
3 HEXANGULAR HEX ( a wizard) ANGULAR (lean, bony)
4 MILL MI (M1 motorway) LL (two learner drivers) – a mill is where one’s work is grinding
5 SENTENCERS SENT (forwarded) SCREEN*
6 IDLE torpID LEthargy – & lit (the whole clue is both construction and definition)
7 RAREST RA (Royal Artillery, gunners) REST (remain) – definition is ‘most excellent’
8 SHEPHERD Parking HER (woman) in SHED (outhouse) – definition is ‘pastor’, one who tends animals
15 EASTERNERS RENT* (reviewed=anagram) in tEASERS (problems) missing T=time
16 ANIMATIONS ANIMATION‘S (go’s) – definition is ‘computerised graphics’, refering to moving images on web pages rather than cartoons
17 HOTHEADS A and THE (two articles) in HODS (scuttles, implements for carrying loose items)
20 INHALERS sounds like “in hailers” – definition is ‘gas masks’
22 EVENLY EVEN (yet) onLY (half of) – definition is ‘uniformly’
24 RHYMES sounds like “rimes” (frosts)
26 HOCK double definition
27 SOME River SOMmE (missing M=miles) – definition is ‘a little’

*anagram

6 comments on “Financial Times 13,952 by Gozo”

  1. An enjoyable tussle to sort out the themed answers. Like PeeDee, I am not exactly sure what the theme is, I went for ‘literature’ too.

  2. Thanks PeeDee and Gozo. Like you, I enjoyed this but also struggled to define the theme – with ‘Ben Hur’ followed by ‘Death on the Nile’ among the first in, I thought it was going to be Oscar-winning movies. But then along comes the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Erewhon’ (which of course is an anagram of nowhere). By the way, there is a typo in 12A (de = some in French, not dome).

  3. Yes! Literature is the theme this time. Don’t forget that my Christmas Jumbo had “films” as the theme, so I wouldn’t want to repeat that topic so soon afterwards. In fact, the “film” connection totally escaped me as I was compiling the puzzle.
    I avoided the NOWHERE anagram of “EREWHON”, as I reckoned it was too obvious!
    Thanks to PeeDee for his review.

  4. My thanks too to PeeDee and Gozo. I didn’t get Romany Rye and three others in the SE — but I’m thankful that the answer to 29 is not, as I was beginning to fear, Roland Rat.

  5. Now, now, Steve at #2, it might just be a little hard to get a 15X15 grid with all the across answers being Oscar-winning films.

    I enjoyed this and was able (eventually) to work all the titles out from the clear and friendly wordplay tho I was looking for the VT of Vermont for a while in the clue that referred to it. Thanks, Gozo and PD, tho you must have forgotten the film of Romany Rye (well, it was made in 1915…)

  6. nmsindy – judging by his previous form I would not be in the least surprised if Gozo came up with a 15×15 grid of Oscar winners. I was looking for something similar myself. All we need now is for someone to find a film version of Erewhon and Gozo has completed a film themed grid by accident!

    Gozo – thank you for dropping in to the blog.

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