A literary puzzle from Neo…
…that I couldn’t quite finish.
I can’t work out the first word in 9ac, so any help would be welcome.
This puzzle required a fair bit of general knowledge, which I enjoy, but some solvers find a little unfair.
All in all, I found this fun.
Thanks, Neo.
| Across | ||
| 1 | VERBATIM | Using same words against me – a Brit abused (8) |
| V (“against) + *(me a brit) | ||
| 6 | See 5 | |
| 9 | Still involved in smooth movement away from oppression (3,3) | |
| 10 | NIGHT OWL | Late worker close to empty well (5,3) |
| NIGH (“close”) + TO + W(el)L | ||
| 11, 25, 4 | GOODBYE TO BERLIN | 15 story in righteous Bible entry mistaken about love (7,2,6) |
| GOOD (“righteous”) + *(bible entry) about O (“love”)
“Goodbye to Berlin” was Isherwood’s most famous book, later adapted for the movie, “Cabaret” |
||
| 12 | RURITANIAN | Person from Zenda educated woman in race with Scotsman (10) |
| RITA (“educated woman”, as in Willy Russell’s play “Educating Rita”) in RUN (“race”) with “Ian” (Crosswordland’s native “Scotsman”)
In Anthony Hope’s famous novel, “The Prisoner of Zenda”, Zenda was a small town in the fictional country of Ruritania, and the site of the castle in which the eponymous prisoner was incarcerated, therefore a person from Zenda would be a Ruritanian. |
||
| 14 | LINGUINI | Food fish taken by university in India (8) |
| LING (“fish”) + U(niversity) + IN +I(ndia) | ||
| 16 | AVON | French plane one ditched in river (4) |
| AV(i)ON (the French for “plane” with 1 ditched) | ||
| 18 | THEL | Book from Blake adds line to article (4) |
| L(ine) added to THE (“article”)
“The Book of Thel” was written by William Blake and published in 1789. |
||
| 19 | CHOWDERS | Cowherds prepared thick soups (8) |
| *(cowherds) | ||
| 21 | PROPELLANT | Support theatre keeping woman in charge (10) |
| PROP (“support”) + NT (National “Theatre”) keeping ELLA (“woman”) | ||
| 22 | ROBE | When power’s cut search closely for gown (4) |
| (p)ROBE (“search closely”, without P(ower)) | ||
| 24 | WOBBLING | Showing uncertainty but dynamic in action (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | LAHORE | Get knowledge about a hotel in Asian city (6) |
| LORE (“knowledge”) about A H(otel) | ||
| 27 | ADHERE | Stick heard to shatter –brittle at the end (6) |
| *(heard) + (brittl)E | ||
| 28 | STARLESS | Black ships initially without crew? (8) |
| S(hips) + TARLESS (“without crew”, ie having no tars or sailors) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ERATO | Books are uplifting – an inspiration? (5) |
| <=O.T ARE where O.T. is the Old Testament (“books”)
Erato was one of the Muses in Greek mythology, therefore an inspiration. |
||
| 3 | BULLDOG CLIP | Canine at speed one to collect the papers? (7,4) |
| BULLDOG (“canine”) + CLIP (“speed”) | ||
| 4 | See 11 | |
| 5, 6 across | MR NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS | 15 story in Mirror asserting NHS can reform (2,6,7,6) |
| *(mirror asserting nhs can)
A Christopher Isherwood novel |
||
| 6 | TIGHTS | Drunken son in ladies’ clothing (6) |
| TIGHT (“drunken”) + S(on) | ||
| 7 | ART | Works in molecular thermodynamics (3) |
| Hidden in “moleculAR Thermodynamics” | ||
| 8 | NEW LABOUR | Recently introduced employees left brand (3,6) |
| NEW (“recently introduced”) + LABOUR (“employees”)
It is however arguable that New Labour was not a left brand, as it took the Labour party into central ground. |
||
| 13 | NEANDERTHAL | Dislodged earl then stays with reactionary (11) |
| *(earl then) stays (as in “holds”) AND (“with”) | ||
| 15 | ISHERWOOD | Author one right to pursue love in hut (9) |
| I (“one”) + R(ight) + WOO (“to pursue love”) in SHED (“hut”), so I-SHE(R-WOO)D | ||
| 17 | TORTILLA | Wrong answer to eat unhealthy pancake (8) |
| TORT (“wrong”) + A(nswer) eating ILL (“unhealthy”) | ||
| 20 | PLAICE | Swimmer up mountain getting chill (6) |
| <=ALP (“mountain”, up) + ICE (“chill”) | ||
| 23 | BORIS | Johnson perhaps sending soldiers in again (5) |
| O(ther) R(anks) (“soldiers”) in BIS (“again”) | ||
| 25 | See 11 | |
*anagram
9a is GAY LIB – AY (always, still) in GLIB.
should 24 be “do(ubt*)ing?
I had DOUBTING for 24a as ub@2. Don’t like to be negative, but as themed crosswords go, I put this at the bottom. If you know Isherwood, then a huge amount of this is virtually a write-in. If not, then it becomes a chore to solve. The other literary knowledge, RURITANIA and THEL seem fair, since they are easy to guess from the cryptic fodder and relate to well-known authors. Didn’t get 9a and AY for ‘still’ seems a stretch too far for me. So a thumbs down for me 🙁
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Found this quite hard, not getting the key ISHERWOOD clue and his two books until quite late. I’ve a collection of first edition Penguin books and I could vaguely remember the MR NORRIS book from that … but had to google to confirm what the rest of the title was … and then all three answers fell out!
GAY-LIB was a late one but when it clicked – very topical down here currently with a referendum on gay marriage under way.
Was another UNDOUBTING entry at 24 and got a shock when I read WOBBLED.
The previously unheard of Book of THEL was the last one in.
In 8 down I think that socialism was the brand that New Labour left.
For 24a DOUBTING is indeed the correct answer according to the FT site today.