An ingenious and straightforward puzzle from Eclogue this week, completed in one session before midday on Saturday.
The definition in each clue has overlooked a letter. In clue order, these letters provide the opening of a novel, plus a two-word description of the author which also indicates what should be removed from the completed grid. Solvers should draw in a three-letter monogram which passes through or touches the centre of each (now) blank square to represent the author. Answers include one prefix.
The “overlooked letters” were mostly pretty easy to spot, and the quotation, though I had to search for it, wasn’t difficult to find. Once the book title was revealed, what to do in the grid became obvious.
The overlooked letters spelled:
THE STRANGER CAME EARLY IN FEBRUARY. LETTERS MAN
These are the opening words of The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells (born in 1866 in my home town of Bromley, Kent where there was a mural in his honour for 20 years – now sadly gone! A link to the picture is HERE.)
The LETTERS MAN of the phrase above was H.G.Wells, the phrase also refers to the implied instruction to make the letters M, A and N invisible in the grid.
So delete the letters M, A and N from the grid and connect the resulting squares to form the letters H, G and W. Simples, as Alexander the Meerkat would say. One minor problem remains – the title Good Work does not seem to imply anything except the quality of the book, does it?
Across |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition with eXtra letter) | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 1 | Perhaps shoTgun’s students loth to wallow with solo pigs (12) | HOPLOLOGISTS | [LOTH SOLO PIGS]* | T |
| 10 | Main railway’s about money – ready to slatHer (6) | SMEARY | SEA (main) + RY (railway) about M(oney) | H |
| 11 | BrEad once in Spain to rob without a sign of hesitation (4) | DURO | DO (rob) round UR (hesitation) | E |
| 12 | SOft stuff face with starters of nice esculents (5) | PANNE | PAN (face) + N(ice) + E(sculents) | S |
| 14 | Dissenter guarding entrance in revolution, one taking sTock (7) | BROODER | REB (for rebel? – not in Chambers) round DOOR (entrance) all reversed | T |
| 17 | Mineral used to soften haRd water run out of lowest point of drink low in calories (7) | ZEOLITE | ZE(r)O + LITE (drink low in calories) | R |
| 18 | Scots apply it to weAn, perhaps, affecting vein with mange (9, 2 words) | GIVEN NAME | [VEIN MANGE]* | A |
| 21 | TiN is involved with this tense eagle (5) | TERNE | T(ense) + ERNE (eagle) | N |
| 22 | Bodyguard holds Irish addresses with Grace? (4) | SIRS | SS (bodyguard) round IR(ish) | G |
| 24 | Arab slopEs, perhaps, found in hotel suite (4) | TELS | Hidden in hoTEL Suite | E |
| 25 | Amateur’s old interest to occupy with dRoll material (5) | AMUSE | AM(ateur) + USE (interest – obsolete) | R |
| 28 | Pie and mash cooked in the London area put with forCe (9) | EMPHASISE | [PIE MASH]* + SE (London area) | C |
| 29 | Cycle cycled tales for art of sprAy, Japanese style? (7) | IKEBANA | BIKE (cycle) with B “cycled” to end + ANA (tales) | A |
| 33 | WI youth, in stylish Mode, ruf?ed your bed (7, 2 words) | RUDE BOY | WI = West Indian – Jamaican phrase: [YOUR BED]* | M |
| 34 | It mEans bellows at first softly then once not with pump’s core (5) | PNEUM- | This is the prefix in the rubric – relates to lungs (bellows): P (softly) + NE (once not) + (p)UM(p) | E |
| 35 | Bacon perhaps which rEests could become so over the top (4) | OLID | O(ver) + LID (top) | E |
| 36 | HarAm bread in grass (6) | ZENANA | Haram and zenana are both words for harem: NAN (bread) in ZEA (grass) | A |
| 37 | Ascends loose rocks in gun fRee period (12, 2 words) | CLOSED SEASON | [ASCENDS LOOSE]* | R |
Down |
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| No. | Clue (definition with extra letter) | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 2 | LAnd in the Gulf, old servant follows (4) | OMAN | O(ld) + MAN (servant) | L |
| 3 | FlYing hunters pound coins, losing little time at first (7) | LANNERS | L (pound) + (t)ANNERS | Y |
| 4 | CoIn ordinary engineer (3) | ORE | Swedish coin: O(rdinary + RE (engineer) | I |
| 5 | Ugly stoNker, so repellent (4) | OGRE | ERGO (so) reversed | N |
| 6 | Supporter For new husband trims ship (9) | GROOMSMAN | GROOMS (trims) + MAN (ship) | F |
| 7 | I party with line of heroinE, maybe (4) | IDOL | I + DO (party) + L(ine) | E |
| 8 | ReBates – water plants rearranged having dismissed Scottish wall idea (5) | TRETS | remove WA (Scottish wall) and PLAN (idea) from (WA)TER (PLAN)TS and anagram | B |
| 9 | I tRack worms, etc, once reddish-brown cross (5) | SOREX | Sorex is a shrew: SORE (once reddish-brown) + X (cross) | R |
| 10 | Jonathan’s faUcet got sip drunk (6) | SPIGOT | Spigot and faucet are both American for tap: [GOT SIP]* | U |
| 13 | Macbeth’s beAt with duke – level end uncertain (8) | NEVELLED | Nevel = pound with fists (dukes): [LEVEL END]* | A |
| 15 | Force one in low resort tending to paRt (8) | DIVISIVE | VIS (force) + I (one) in DIVE (low resort) | R |
| 16 | Losing control early on, new ambulance crashed – not yet readY for citation (9) | UNNAMABLE | Remove C(ontrol) from AMBULAN(c)E + N(ew) (new early on) and anagram [AMBULANE N]* | Y |
| 19 | Root for man in kiLt? Go up after end of season (4) | NEEP | PEE (go!) reversed after (seaso)N | L |
| 20 | Provider of carE for junior dance, adult reversed (4) | AYAH | HAY (dance) + A all reversed | E |
| 22 | Apocryphal tiTle in scripture, one not available after arrest (7) | SUSANNA | AN (one) + NA (not available) after SUS (arrest) | T |
| 23 | CharT to hinder mother (6) | STEMMA | STEM (hinder) + MA (mother) | T |
| 26 | HEated wind occurring in Morocco, rising, rising (5) | SIROC | Hidden reversed in MorocCO RISing | E |
| 27 | In LA gRay matter’s protected by this basket (5) | SKULL | Double definition: protects the brain and a basket: LA refers to the spelling of gray. | R |
| 30 | Primarily, berths enabling dosSing sessions (4) | BEDS | &lit clue: B(erths) E(nabling) D(ossing) S(essions) | S |
| 31 | SoMme name for pole circuit with little depth (4) | NORD | French for North: NOR (logic circuit) + D(epth) | M |
| 32 | Significant Asteroid, one locally taken by little woman (4) | JUNO | JO (Little Woman – Louisa May Alcott novel) round UN (dialect one) | A |
| 34 | NUmber one said to represent phosphorus (3) | PEE | Number one – c.f. number twos! Said P (symbol for Phosphorus) | N |
Yes indeed – an ingenious and straightforward puzzle. And very nicely blogged.
As for the title, I have a vague memory of something religious – ‘good works’should be invisible, not shown off in public? Or maybe the good works of God are invisible? I don’t know – just rings some sort of very distant (church?) bell.
I will of course be proved wrong by subsequent posts. I don’t mind that. Just something that flitted across my mind, and I didn’t pursue it.
I was exercised by the instruction to ‘draw in a three-letter monogram’. A monogram, according to Chambers’ is ‘a figure consisting of several letters interwoven or written into one‘. That seems to require that the H, G and W are joined, not so? In the end, I joined the H to the G with a diagonal, and the G to the W with a horizontal line.
If this was not required, why that very specific instruction rather than just ‘shade the blank cells’, or indeed just leave them blank?
Didn’t do quite so well as last week. Solved all but four of the clues. Got the hidden message, googled the quotation, but totally failed to recognise the significance of “letters man”. I don’t seem to be very good at spotting patterns in the finished grid.3
Hi Laphria #2.
I assumed that the three separate letters formed the “monogram”, but have now read the definition in Chambers and see your point. Collins, however has a design of one or more letters, esp initials, embroidered on clothing, printed on stationery, etc. So I think the separate letters are OK.
Like Laphria, I was bothered by the instruction. To make things more complicated, some editions of Wells’ books were published with a monogram of his initials on the cover:
http://www.harringtonbooks.co.uk/advSearchResults.php?category_id=211&orderBy=author&action=search&authorField=H+G+WELLS
Another one I found on the easy side – is John H going to toss us a stinker shortly?
No idea how the title Good Work fits in, but one idea I had for REB (wordplay for 14a) comes from Chambers having Johnny Reb: a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. (Compare Billy Yank.)
And I’ve seen monograms where the letters weren’t joined up; for example, I think the current Volkswagen badge (a V above a W, in a circle) would count.
Thanks to S&B.
I managed all the clues bar one, and removed all the Ms, As and Ns to make HGW appear. Unfortunately, I didn’t work out 1ac, despite knowing what the letters would be. Hoplolgists seemed such an unlikely word that I didn’t even bother looking it up! ?
Found the monogram but failed on 3 of the solutions. This is a reversal of my normal effort where I eventually manage to solve the clues but fail on the subsequent grid modifications. Thanks to Hihoba and Eclouge.