Super puzzle and an enjoyable change form the standard Sunday fare. Thank you Azed.
Each ‘mini-review’ contains both a definition (one word or more) and a mixture or
reversal of the letters (beginning at the beginning or ending at the end of a word in
the clue) of the three answers indicated by the clue numbers (in the correct order).
Both indications of the first answer precede both indications of the second, and so
on. Definitions and letter mixtures never overlap. In each case the definition or the
letter mixture may come first.
I was intrigued by some of these reviews and I was disappointed to find that none of the works mentioned are currently in print. Don Undervest, Merrily Chaste and Slovo Read were my favourites.
The reviews grouped clues in threes but I have somewhat arbitrarily split them out to make the explanations easier to read.
Definitions are in blue, the anagram fodder is shown in red.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | THRUTCH | Truth Changes by Rory Porter. Frank exposé of press inaccuracy (7) |
| 6 | PRANA | giving a breath of life to a tired industry, on a par with (5) |
| 10 | BOODIE-RAT | any editor above paying to employ some rare Aussie bounder (9) |
| 11 | UNDO | A Few Loose Deliveries by Don Undervest (4) |
| 13 | SCOUT | In which the bowling coach forsakes his customary search for (5) |
| 14 | PEGTOPS | new spinners, lambasting whoever gets opponents out by ‘sledging’ (7) |
| 16 | EYETI | Not Yet Eighteen by ‘Giovanna’. Coming-of-age Italian romance (5) |
| 17 | TENUTI | with prolonged notes in utterly rapturous prose; (6) |
| 19 | ADDRESSEES | cover names it ‘one of the most joy-blessed reads of the season’ (10) |
| 21 | DOVER SOLES | Fish Out Of Water by Slovo Reed. Simple holiday recipes (10) |
| 23 | MOCOCK | no mock cod’s roe in a birch bark box (6) |
| 25 | ABORT | or tabbouleh Ottolenghi that’s bound to terminate in abject failure (5) |
| 29 | ILLAPSE | All Spies And Marjory, by Herb Gardiner. One to slip in your rucksack (7) |
| 30 | RESAT | taken again for that short break horticulturists treasure(5) |
| 31 | NEMN | when men go through all their edible plants by name (4) |
| 32 | EXTRINSIC | The Next Crisis. Three former foreign ministers (9) |
| 33 | SEISE | see signs of history repeated to apprehend as before (5) |
| 34 | ITERANT | in treatments travelling backwards and forwards in time (7) |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TAUPE | Only One Shade Of Grey by Merrily Chaste.Sex manual to put each (5) |
| 2 | HONEYMOON | couple at ease on money, holding that special holiday and (9) |
| 3 | RADGE | lustful urges until both have made the grade (5) |
| 4 | TOROID | This Mortal Coil by Rod Otis. (6) |
| 5 | COPPERSKIN | Theatrical anecdotes in which Indian actors pick personal favourites (10) |
| 6 | PISTE | from on and off the beaten track, with stage tips for newcomers (5) |
| 7 | RECENSE | The Wider Scene by Phil McAnvas. Helps you revise your approach (7) |
| 8 | AROW | to a work of art, in line with (4) |
| 9 | ATTRIST | how a real artist thinks; guaranteed not to depress old or young (7) |
| 12 | OSTEOCLAST | The Bone Cracker by Scott Leason. (10) |
| 15 | STEERSMAN | With one of our surest names in crime fiction to pilot us through (9) |
| 18 | ADMIRES | this grisly read, I’m sure this is one his devoted public rates highly (7) |
| 20 | DEODARS | Trees of Asia. Dora Desai explores her native forests (7) |
| 22 | LALDIE | beating a path ideally suited to 6) |
| 24 | CUTIE | those who would rescue it from depredation, like the smart girl she is (5) |
| 26 | OPERA | It Works For Me. A report on today’s trade union management (5) |
| 27 | TENET | competent in principle (5) |
| 28 | ASTI | but controlled as it’s always been by a white majority (5, 5, 4) |
I can’t remember the last time Azed offered us one of these DLM (definition and letter mixture) puzzles. They look daunting at first, but once you get started the crossing letters make looking for the letter mixture much easier.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee: I wondered how the blogger was going to cope with the unusual format and I think the way you have chosen is perfectly clear.
I enjoyed this puzzle immensely. I wouldn’t venture an opinion on whether it’s easier for the setter to link clues in threes or in pairs. By chance I have not long since solved a similar puzzle (in pairs) by Ximenes. I thought that the most brilliant and hilarious confection ever. Azed’s comes close. The Ximenes puzzle is archived in a collection on the Crossword Centre website.
This completely defeated me. I was on holiday last weekend and didn’t get a paper so I printed this off the website Monday night. I looked at it several times during the week and just couldn’t see how to get started. Not a single answer.
Dormouse – getting started was certainly the hardest part. My experience was of 4 mini puzzles each following the same pattern: being stuck; getting started in one corner; filling that corner; being stuck again.
I used the 4-letter solutions as the ways in as they gave the fewest possibilities where the anagram fodder might lie.
Like others, I didn’t think I’d be able to get anywhere with this, but hooray for Slovo Reed which looked fishy enough (sorry) to be a nice starter clue. From there, I relaxed and ended up feeling it was the most enjoyable Azed special for some time. (I wonder if EYETI and COPPERSKIN would have been used in the Observer’s sister paper.)
This really was a treat. Like PeeDee I thought some of the books sounded mouth-watering, likewise author’s names. Thanks for the blog (in 10 the red letters have slipped to the right from “editor abo”ve)
Starting was the problem (thanks to Slovo Reed, like Michael that was my way in) and it was Wednesday before I’d got to the downhill stage. Must look up the Ximenes. My LOI was BOODIE-RAT, looked in the wrong place for the anagram.
What a shame more didn’t express their appreciation.