Puzzles with a lot of cross-referencing are not my favourite, but in this case the gateway clue was very easily solved. Then it was simply a matter of Googling this person and getting a lot more information than was in my head, and in some cases working backwards to justify the wordplay.
There are some who dislike getting a list of things and simply reading off that list, and there are others who dislike having to ‘post-justify’ the wordplay, but this was all very nicely done and there are some excellent clues.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Bonn homemaker hit it off with a Yankee conman nearly (8)
HAUSFRAU
h{it} a US frau{d}
5 Could rowdy students finish work by 3? (6)
CLOUDS
(Could)* {student}s I think, although if it’s this then it should say students’, or else the word ‘finish’ is an imperative applying to what precedes it, neither of them utterly convincing, so perhaps it’s something else that I can’t see
9 They glow when left shielded by brollies (3,5)
GAS LAMPS
g(as l)amps
10 Small joints said to be sign of cold work by 3 (6)
SNEEZE
s [= small] “knees” — according to Wikipedia it’s “The Sneeze”, a Chekhov 20ac
12 Changed mind in Basra when I’d unpacked (11)
BRAINWASHED
(Basra when I’d)*
15 He has a home in the Gulf and Romania (5)
OMANI
Hidden in ROMANIa
17 Conductor‘s sort of Doppler effect, not very soft or very loud (9)
ELECTRODE
(Doppler effect – pp – ff)* — a very nice spot and the soft/loud words mislead to people like Beecham or Rattle
18 Energy with high speed tremors makes big rings (9)
ECLIPTICS
e clip tics — large circles to do with astronomy, as I had to discover, although the wordplay strongly suggests the answer even if one doesn’t know the word
19 What GP urges should be taken regularly (5)
DRUGS
Dr u{r}g{e}s — a would-be &lit., which almost works brilliantly, but the word ‘What’ is misleading in the wordplay, and I’m not convinced: does it apply just to the word following it and so is an elliptical form of ‘What is a’? Surely not. Does it apply to all the words that follow it and so is an elliptical form of ‘What follows is:”? Again surely not. Perhaps someone can explain why it isn’t just there to make the definition better.
20 E.g. 3’s 11 Across in Latin, old boring Latin (11)
TRANSLATION
There is no 11 Across in this crossword, so I couldn’t think what was happening, until I realised that the definition stops after 11, which is 11dn and is THREE SISTERS. Michael Frayn translated this. It’s trans [= across in Latin] Lati(o)n — very good misleading clue
24 Cast mention lovelorn work by 3 (3,3)
TIN MEN
(mention – 0)* — again according to Wikipedia it’s ‘The Tin Men’
25 Train had gone, carrying lost work by 3 at full speed (8)
HEADLONG
‘Train’ is the anagram indicator, and it’s l [= lost] in (had gone)* — there are two definitions here, as ‘Headlong’ is a Michael Frayn novel of 1999
26 The strong may conceivably end in misery (6)
MIGHTY
might [= may conceivably] {miser}y
27 What critic does like Greek hero out of uniform? (8)
ASPERSES
as Perse{u}s — although does a critic slander or accuse falsely, as ‘asperse’ means? Not necessarily, which presumably accounts for the question mark, but is this enough?
Down
1 Learned how bridge is played without hearts (10)
HIGHBROWED
(how bridge)* round h
2 EU clashed with Balkans over hotel firm (10)
UNSHAKABLE
(EU Balkans)* round [= over, never like this but it’s so common that it has become something we accept now without raising an eyebrow] h
3 No church in France admitting unknown writer (5)
FRAYN
The gateway clue — Fra(y)n{CE} — Michael Frayn
4 It could be a palpable hit with catholic, not priest in this order (12)
ALPHABETICAL
(a palpable hit c – p)* — alphabetical order, nice misdirection
6 Yearned to keep a little back as sort of security (4-5)
LONG-DATED
longed around (tad)rev. — referring to securities as in stocks and shares
7 Dog-eared chapter in omnibus edition? (4)
USED
Hidden in omnibUS EDition — chapter is not the usual c but a main division of written material
8 The rise of Jupiter or the fall of Eden? (4)
SUEZ
Anthony Eden was Prime Minister at the time of Suez in 1956 and it was his downfall — also (Zeus)rev. — the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Jupiter
11 3 absurdly resists 3’s take on Chekhov work (5,7)
THREE SISTERS
Three [= 3] (resists)* — Frayn translated this Chekhov work
13 Very old, bright and roomy (10)
VOLUMINOUS
v [= very] o [= old] luminous
14 Queen’s working, guarded by attendants and VIPs (10)
PERSONAGES
(ER’s on) in pages
16 Writer’s clear about one that’s dying (9)
IMPATIENT
I’m [= writer] pat(1)ent
21 Get rotten with beer, swigging generous cups (5)
ADDLE
DD in ale, generous cups as in bra sizes
22 Not much substance in an abridged volume (4)
ATOM
a tom{e}
23 Raise arms to get cosy (4)
SNUG
(guns)rev.
Even though I know nothing about Michael Frayn I solved the gateway clue and the rest of the themed entries without recourse to aids because the cluing was clear enough, but I stupidly put in ASSESSES at 27ac without parsing it properly. That’ll teach me, he says for the 100th time, and it never does …………….
I found this fairly tough for a Tuesday.
Hmm exactly the same experience as AndyB even down to ASSESSSES 🙁 although looking at how much time I had to read the paper on the train I didn’t find the rest of it too hard.
Cheers John & Radian
I think you would only get a ‘semi &lit’ or ‘extended def ‘ for the DRUGS clue. Also,, I think ‘these’ instead of ‘what’ would be better.
Thanks
Rowly.
Agree that multiple cross-referencing can sometimes be a bit frustrating. In this case, although I knew of Michael Frayn, I knew none of the “works” except Three Sisters, but they were all gettable from the wordplay, so no quibbles.
Thanks to Radian and John.
No Greek hero called Serseus.
I enjoyed the surfaces and clear clueing of this puzzle. I particularly liked 12a, 19a, 7d, 14d, 4d, 13d and my favourites were 1a HAUSFRAU, 16d IMPATIENT, 26a MIGHTY, 22d ATOM & 8d SUEZ (last in).
New word for me was GAMP = umbrella.
Thanks Radian and John.
A very enjoyable crossword although I had to use Wikipedia to check the thematic entries. I didn’t enter 7d until I had the cross-checking letters as I couldn’t understand the presence of “chapter” in the clue. Thanks John for sorting that out for me.
My favourite clue was 8d – beautiful and concise.
Thanks Radian and John
This was a small tribute to the English language’s foremost dramatist/novelist who turned 80 on Sunday. “Alphabetical Order” was his too, a reminder of the behind-the-scenes chaos in a daily newspaper office, pre-Wapping. Just sorry I didn’t find a slot for his comic masterpiece “Noises Off”. Long may he and it run.
The only Frayn play I know was Noises Off so it was a bit of a bummer when it didn’t appear at all in the puzzle. I guessed the others from the wordplay, although I wasn’t particularly confident about putting them in. I was in the same boat as everyone else on asperges – if I’d been doing the paper version, I’d probably have written assesses in and left it at that. But the advantage of online is that you get the useful little message if you’ve filled it in correctly so, when that didn’t appear, I knew I had to look again and eventually remembered Perseus.
Neal my dead tree problem. If this was a prize most answers would be wrong I guess.
Thanks for blogging, John, but I disagree with most of your niggles. I knew of FRAYN, although his works are not that well known in this household; but the themed clues were my last ones in, so fair enough.
I had the impression that Radian was trying to give us some reasonably easy clues to get us into the gateway clue and the theme; if that’s the case, then thank you.
And of course SESSEUS is a well-known Greek hero, related to PERSEPHONE, ARACHNE and ACHILLES. Well, that’s what I thought this morning.
Thanks to Radian.
No quibbles from us either but it took us a while. We didn’t search for FRAYN on wiki but guessed his works, apart from 5ac which we knew.
Thanks for the blog John, we thought it was assesses for 27ac as well without knowing who the hero was! Glad we weren’t alone.
Cheers to Radian!
“If the wordplay doesn’t make sense, look for another answer”. Someone advised this somewhere once and I’ve always remembered it so I would not settle for ASSESSES and eventually dug out the right answer.
We would have done the same thing nmsindy@12 but it was getting late and we needed to get some sleep! It was easier coming here to check as it was the last clue to be solved!