One of Punk’s typically excellent crosswords: not easy to solve — particularly while the gateway clue was still a mystery to me — but quite straightforward after the event, as it should be.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
This is all about the children’s writer Julia Donaldson, who I see was born in September 1948, so perhaps you can explain why she was chosen for this. Anyway Punk has incorporated many of her writings in the grid, and he’s done this without stepping outside the 50% checking limit. Not being an expert on Julia Donaldson I have to admit that I used Google to check on some of these titles.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BULLET POINT | Dot put duck in drink after slug (6,5) |
| bullet [= slug, as from a gun] p(0)int | ||
| 7 | See 25 | |
| 8 | STICK MAN | Lowry’s subject for one of 13’s stories (5,3) |
| 2 defs — one of Julia Donaldson’s stories being Stick Man | ||
| 10 | SET ASIDE | Besides which, I do like to be singing about Tottenham’s first reserve (3,5) |
| se(T{ottenham})aside — “I Do Like to be Beside The Seaside” — this song from 1907 — the first two words indicate the beside nature of the seaside in this case and are not, as I initially thought, some sort of second definition | ||
| 12 | GERBIL | Finally roaming free in Cameroon, retiring animal of the desert (6) |
| {roamin}g (libre)rev. since Cameroon is a French-speaking country | ||
| 13 | JULIA DONALDSON | Granny clasping back in fall, silly sod, after trouble doing a backflip in sport, she writes (5,9) |
| ju((ail)rev.)do na({fal}l (sod)*)n | ||
| 17 | ROOM ON THE BROOM | A few weeks to live in retreat among native Australians and Maoris, primarily, in one of 13’s stories (4,2,3,5) |
| roo(month (be)rev.)roo {M}aoris — Room on the Broom is one of Julia Donaldson’s stories | ||
| 20 | LUDLOW | English town beginning to lose in board game, win less popular (6) |
| lud{l{ose})o w{in} — win less popular means win minus in | ||
| 23 | DECANTER | Vessel having to slow to a trot, might you say? (8) |
| de-canter — the word probably doesn’t exist in this sense, but whimsically if a horse slows from a canter it de-canters | ||
| 25/7/22 | THE SNAIL AND THE WHALE | One of 13’s stories, when she grapples with Thailand in fable (3,5,3,3,5) |
| (when she Thailand)* in tale — The Snail and the Whale is another of Julia Donaldson’s stories | ||
| 26 | IN A WAY | Kind of newspaper, pale back always (2,1,3) |
| I [the newspaper spawned by The Independent] (wan)rev. ay | ||
| 28 | THE GRUFFALO | One of 13’s stories, where claw almost seizes male husky (3,8) |
| t(he gruff)alo{n} — The Gruffalo is another of Julia Donaldson’s stories | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BANDEAU | Male lover’s dressed with type of bikini top (7) |
| b(and)eau | ||
| 2 | LOT | Airline‘s fate (3) |
| 2 defs — Polish Airlines | ||
| 3 | ELEMI | Something fragrant eaten up by lunchtime, lemony (5) |
| Hidden reversed in lunchtIME LEmony | ||
| 4 | POSTERN | Back entrance in Bill Clinton’s bottom (7) |
| poster [= bill] {Clinto}n | ||
| 5 | ICING | Sweet thing hard to ignore in Chinese book (5) |
| I C{h}ing | ||
| 6 | TAKER | One unlikely to give a little time, God’s heading off (5) |
| t {M}aker | ||
| 9 | ALIEN | Colleague of Buzz A and Michael C up for being in outer space? (5) |
| (Neil A)rev. — Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong were on that flight to the moon | ||
| 11 | AMIGO | Could I be fit for friend? (5) |
| “am I go?” | ||
| 14 | DUO | Couple upside-down in boudoir (3) |
| Hidden reversed in bOUDoir | ||
| 15 | LIE | Story claimed to miss the odd parts (3) |
| {c}l{a}i{m}e{d} | ||
| 16 | SIREN | Father Brown’s ultimate temptress (5) |
| sire {Brow}n | ||
| 17 | ROUGH | Approximate location of misdirected golf ball? (5) |
| 2 defs, one of them referring to what happens to an errant golfer | ||
| 18 | TIDDLER | Cat retracting tail a little in one of 13’s stories (7) |
| Tiddles with the s ‘retracted’ a little; ie one place back in the alphabet — Tiddles as a definition of cat seems to me to be a bit at the limit — after all you might call your hamster Tiddles — Tiddler is another of Julia Donaldson’s stories | ||
| 19 | OREGANO | Exceptional starter covered by newspaper – nothing that adds flavour? (7) |
| or(E{xceptional})gan 0 | ||
| 21 | LISZT | Sound tip for music writer (5) |
| “list” | ||
| 22 | See 25 Across | |
| 24 | CHIEF | Main, one fed to cook (5) |
| ch(1)ef | ||
| 27 | AGA | In Turkey, an official story needing no introduction (3) |
| {s}aga | ||
*anagram
I had only heard of a gruffalo and it seems it took off.
It was tough enough with google etc, not having heard of the author. Funny grid too.
Being a simple soul, I liked such things as 17d.
Thanks John and Punk.
Yes, not easy to solve, with a difficult to parse gateway clue. I didn’t know the author and like copmus @1 the only one of her works I’d vaguely heard of was THE GRUFFALO but I still managed to finish this eventually, thanks to crossers and wordplay. I was unsure about TIDDLER which I parsed / guessed as above. Aside from the themed clues, ELEMI was unknown.
Maybe not children’s book material but the surface for 4d brought a smile.
Thanks to Punk and John
Well, this was a bit of a doddle for us – thanks to our grandchildren to whom we have read many of 13’s books. One of those crosswords where it’s better to take an overview rather than work through the clues in order. We realised what was going on and the enumeration of 25/7/22 suggested THE _____ AND THE _____; then from the enumeration of 13 we thought: could it be JULIA DONALDSON? OK, pencil it in and see if it will parse – it does – eureka! Thanks, Punk and John.
Only one quibble, with 28ac: silly old Punk, doesn’t he know, there’s no such thing as a gruffal – OH!
That was a strange solve! I hadn’t heard of the author, but having got nowhere with the previous across clues, I worked her name out backwards from the wordplay, starting with _____DSON, then Googled her and used Wiki for the other theme clues, around which the crossword unfolded itself quite nicely, thank you.
Having only heard of The Gruffalo, and not knowing the author’s name, I struggled a bit, but did eventually manage to work out all of the other books and her name from wordplay, only get stuck on LISZT and LUDLOW where I needed to unveil a couple of letters to finish. Liked BULLET POINT. Tough stuff. Thanks Punk and John.
A bit unsatisfying. Couldn’t work out any of the long answers but I guessed 8ac and googled it to find the name of the author. But, apart from 28ac, didn’t know any of her works and ended up bringing up a list on Wikipedia, which was the only way I could complete this.