Better late than never.
Problems with the website meant that this blog is much later than normal.
This was an enjoyable solve, with only one minor quibble at 4dn.
There isn’t a theme as such, although literary references make an odd appearance.
Thanks Neo
| Across | ||
| 1 | FAME AND FORTUNE | Intend – in craze for melody – to find stardom (4,3,7) |
| MEAN in FAD + FOR TUNE | ||
| 10 | ACTON | Performance taking place in West London district (5) |
| ACT + ON | ||
| 11 | RESONATOR | Arrest Ono brutally? One makes sympathetic noises (9) |
| *(arrest Ono) | ||
| 12 | FLORIDA | Excessively ornate answer reveals keys location (7) |
| FLORID + A(nswer) | ||
| 13 | ASSUAGE | Soften when wise man stores uranium (7) |
| AS SAGE stores U | ||
| 14 | ANIMA | Manx cat for example shows inner personality (5) |
| ANIMA(l) | ||
| 16 | IGNORAMUS | Organism spreads to consume upper-class twit (9) |
| *(organism) consumes U | ||
| 19 | ANY DAY NOW | Soon Andy sent mad – no way out (3,3,3) |
| *(andy) + *(no way) | ||
| 20 | EULER | The French in their way rejected Swiss scientist (5) |
| LE in <=RUE | ||
| 22 | CHAPELS | HCE and ALP supply saint’s holy locations (7) |
| *(hce alp) + S (“saint”)
HCE and ALP are two characters in Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. |
||
| 25 | GLADDEN | Make merry to combine in mountain valley (7) |
| ADD in GLEN | ||
| 27 | ANDANTINO | Mark in time a new dawn’s dawn: nation reformed (9) |
| A N D(awn) + *(nation)
In musinc, andantino is “moderately fast” |
||
| 28 | BEANO | Get to vote against the party (5) |
| BE A NO | ||
| 29 | MAN AND SUPERMAN | Bernard Shaw’s piece with really nice chap on island (3,3,8) |
| AND SUPER MAN (“with really nice chap”) on MAN (“island”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | AUTHORITY | For influence, write the thing with Hemingway’s ending (9) |
| AUTHOR IT + (hemingwa)Y | ||
| 3 | ENNUI | Lassitude, as Lennon put it, oddly dismissive (5) |
| lEnNoN pUt It (odd letters dismissed) | ||
| 4 | NARRATION | Managed to see increase with share account (9) |
| <=NAR + RATION
I don’t like “to see increase” as an indicator for reversing (in this case, going up), as it requires the solver to translate “increase” to “go up”. |
||
| 5 | FOSSA | Madagascan mammal first to find bones (5) |
| F(ind) + OSSA (“bones”)
A fossa is a large cat-like carnivore only found on Madagascar. |
||
| 6 | RINGS TRUE | Getting jewellery put on rightly leads to conviction? (5,4) |
| RINGS + TRUE | ||
| 7 | ULTRA | Sons name desert leader of Muslims, having run in extremist (5) |
| (s)ULTA(n) having R in | ||
| 8 | EARLESS | Extremely brave female leaves, having no listeners (7) |
| (f)EARLESS | ||
| 9 | RAFFIA | Fibres, excellent, fine and very much pushed back (6) |
| <=A1 + F + FAR | ||
| 15 | AGAMEMNON | Greek leader soon to host contest millions attend (9) |
| ANON hosts GAME + M | ||
| 17 | NEWSGROUP | Unfortunately son grew up in e-mail forum (9) |
| *(son grew up) | ||
| 18 | MELODRAMA | Give me old-fashioned stuff – a sensational piece! (9) |
| ME + *(old) + RAM + A | ||
| 19 | ACCLAIM | Approval from leader to admonish city council on trashy mail (7) |
| A(dmonish) + C.C. + *(mail) | ||
| 21 | RANSOM | Recovery monies trickled down a little? Not quite! (6) |
| RAN + SOM(e) | ||
| 23 | ARDEN | Forest burning incessantly (5) |
| ARDEN(t) | ||
| 24 | SWISS | European succeeded three times around London area (5) |
| W1 in S S S (“succeeded three times”) | ||
| 26 | AMBER | Resin discovered in Camberwell (5) |
| hidden in cAMBERwell | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick and Neo.
I thought for a while about “increase” as a reversal indicator in 4 but resolved it as OK.
I did have a couple of minor quibbles myself though.
In 14ac – my last in – I’m not really sure what “for example” is doing in the clue. Maybe “inner personality could be Manx cat”?
And the clue for 20ac contains the solution to 24dn (SWISS).
Elsewhere thanks for elucidating 22ac – I don’t know how the book so didn’t recognise the characters. Is there a wider link in the puzzle?
Thanks Neo and loonapick
A pretty straightforward offering by Neo here – and could not find his usual nina in it.
Nothing really stand-out within the puzzle, although FOSSA was a new animal from the island of one-off type creatures.
Finished with the BEANO – RANSOM crossers down in the SE corner.