The puzzle can be found here.
Hello and happy Saturday. Thanks to Wiglaf for today’s crossed words, of which my favourite is of course CANOODLE (4d). I also liked the inclusion of an equation (19a) and the regulars in boozer found in 22d.
There is a theme. I nearly missed it completely, but after writing the blog noticed the first two across answers. We have the TITLE and AUTHOR of The English Patient, plus most of the main CHARACTERS and few other thematic words such as HANDS and READER. Not being familiar with the work, I haven’t tried to identify every word which might be part of the theme; you may be able to find more.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
Across
7a Nigel’s put out by Natasha’s first in Cyrillic language (7)
ENGLISH
NIGEL’S anagrammed (put out) next to (by) H, Natasha’s first letter, N in Cyrillic
8a Enduring pop and heavy metal involving 7 tenor (7)
PATIENT
PA (pop) and TIN (heavy metal) containing (involving) E (7, 7a: English), followed by T (tenor)
9a Passage from memorial mass for Mahler? (4)
ALMA
Part of (passage from) memoriAL Mass. Alma Mahler
10a Case of spy using communication device for tapping (9)
SYPHONING
The outer letters of (case of) SpY + PHONING (using communication device)
12a Devil stalking chief primate (5)
CHIMP
IMP (devil) following (stalking) CH (chief)
13a Juliet on a date with smashing Booker Prize winner (8)
ONDAATJE
J (Juliet) ON A DATE anagrammed (with smashing). Michael Ondaatje. I Had to use aids to get this one; my general knowledge is holey, perhaps because I spend too much time solving crosswords! I was going to point out that J’s NATO alphabet code word is actually Juliett, but Wiglaf is following the spelling given in all the main English dictionaries (which don’t include the official international spelling of Alfa either)
14a One dwelling in grot possibly (4)
TROG
An anagram of (… possibly) GROT, grot being a poetic shortening of grotto. However, while I accepted it happily when solving, I couldn’t find trog to mean troglodyte in the main dictionaries
15a Some find controversy is enthralling (5)
TROVE
ConTROVErsy contains (is enthralling) the answer
16a Mandlikova seen in Chinese area (4)
HANA
HAN (Chinese) + A (area). Hana Mandlíková
17a Dislike article prefacing translation (8)
AVERSION
A (article) before (prefacing) VERSION (translation)
19a H + S = LR? (5)
HANDS
Expanding the left hand side of the clue equation gives H AND (+) S. L (left) + R (right) hands
20a Inelegant, as Hitchcock became after Kelly got hitched? (9)
GRACELESS
After Grace Kelly retired from acting following her marriage, Alfred Hitchcock was unable to persuade her to appear in any more of his films: he could be said to have become GRACELESS
21a Herbert Lom, endlessly in court (4)
CLOT
LOm without the last letter (endlessly) in CT (court)
23a Censor one line in controversial scene (7)
SILENCE
I (one) and L (line) in an anagram of (controversial) SCENE
24a Tory receives boost in Bristol council ward (7)
CLIFTON
CON (Tory) has the insertion of (receives) LIFT (boost)
Down
1d A flower almost deep blue (4)
ANIL
A (from the clue) + NILe (flower) without the last letter (almost)
2d Quelling a liberal, emulating a chicken? (8)
ALLAYING
A charade of A (from the clue), L (liberal), and LAYING (emulating a chicken?)
3d Completely consumes American and 7 drink (4,2)
USES UP
US and E (7, 7a: English) + SUP (drink)
4d Pet food placed next to Douglas’s cat? (8)
CANOODLE
NOODLE (food) placed next to CA[t] which has no last letter, or tail, because it is a Manx (Douglas’s?) cat
5d Graduate leaves large church compound (6)
SILICA
BA (graduate) leaves [ba]SILICA (large church)
6d Architect, one into dreadful jingoism mostly (5,5)
INIGO JONES
ONE (from the clue) inserted into an anagram of (dreadful) JINGOISm without the last letter (mostly)
11d Maybe you should go to church to ordain (9)
PRONOUNCE
PRONOUN (maybe you) + CE (church)
12d Artist from Goa knocked around with a German vicar (10)
CARAVAGGIO
An anagram (knocked around) of GOA with A G (German) VICAR
15d Old Celtic noble, before the hour of one, aches badly (8)
TOISEACH
TO (before) + I (one, [the hour of] one) then an anagram of (… badly) ACHES
16d Worker on strike shows restraint (8)
HANDCUFF
HAND (worker) on CUFF (strike)
18d Lecturer of French lags behind? Au contraire! (6)
READER
DE (of, French) surrounded by (lags … au contraire!) REAR (behind)
19d Girl on cycle visits boy in trouble (6)
HASSLE
LASS with the letters cycled (on cycle) hoes inside (visits) HE (boy)
22d Stop over to join regulars in boozer (4)
OBOE
O (over) plus regular letters in (regulars in) BoOzEr. An organ stop
I don’t think I’ve ever read a Booker Prize winning novel and probably never will, so the theme completely passed me by and unable to help with any other theme-related answers. Despite which (and needing electronic help with a couple) I really enjoyed the puzzle. 1A was a clever red herring. Thanks Wiglaf and Kitty.
It all went in fairly smoothly, but there was quite a bit of GK required. Our LOI was ONDAATJE, where we had to consult a list of Booker Prize winners to unscramble the anagram, after which the penny dropped as we hadn’t seen the now glaringly obvious connection of ENGLISH and PATIENT.
But ENGLISH was our FOI as we remembered the H = N in Cyrillic trick from a previous crossword (though we can’t remember the setter or when it was).
Plenty more to like, including SILICA, INIGO JONES and TOISEACH (the latter, of course, is also the Gaelic term for the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic).
Thanks, Wiglaf and Kitty.
We’ve now tracked down the previous use of the H = N in Cyrillic trick. The perpetrator then, as now, was Wiglaf in July 2017 – Indy 9600. We thought at the time that it was a bit sneaky.
It’s perhaps because Wiglaf lives, as far as I know, in Georgia (the country, not the state).
I quite liked it, as can be said of the puzzle as a whole.
I also found the crossword much easier than Wiglaf usually is (but I missed the theme).
There was a lot of ‘hassle’ in Crosswordland recently, wasn’t there?
Many thanks to Kitty & Wiglaf.
Thanks to Kitty for another excellent blog and to those who commented.
Sil @4
I do live in Georgia but the Georgian language does not use the Cyrillic script – it has its own script. I actually got the idea from Murder in the Orient Express.