For Her Eyes Only by Artix
Initial letters of single extra words in 11 clues may be rearranged to give the author of a series of works whose eponym – omitting an article – can be found in the completed grid after (i) resolving a clash and (ii) adapting one letter into a number. An extra letter must be inserted in each of two cells (180°-symmetric in the grid) to reveal two 11-letter protagonists. One complete row must be blacked out and most (but not quite all) of the rest of the grid coloured to create a thematic background; finally, the six unthematic letters in one partially white row should be erased, thereby ensuring all (non-thematically adjusted) entries are real words.
To paraphrase Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey in Airplane! – I sure picked the wrong week to test positive for COVID!
Despite being double-vaccinated, I came back from two weeks in Scotland with the dreaded COVID-19.
This meant that my brain power was definitely struggling while solving this puzzle, so apologies in advance for any errors in this blog.
I do think that under normal circumstances, I would have struggled to understand the preamble. There’s a lot to unpack.
Why we needed to have a clash, I don’t really understand but changing one letter to a number was relatively easy. The clash is in c7 and in 30a, DEFECTIVE becomes DETECTIVE. The I in f5 changes to 1. Thus spelling out NO 1 LADIES and DETECTIVE AGENCY. NO 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY is a series of novels written by Alexander McCALL SMITH. The novels are set in Botswana, so we have to colour the grid to represent the flag of Botswana.
The extra letters generate the letters of McCALL SMITH, as shown in the following table:
| Clue | Word | First letter |
| 21a | MORALITY | M |
| 27d | CATTLE | C |
| 31d | CYCLED | C |
| 11d | ACADEMY | A |
| 38a | LIFE | L |
| 26d | LUXE | L |
| 19a | SNUBBED | S |
| 23a | MEN | M |
| 6a | ITALIAN | I |
| 17a | TEARS | T |
| 5d | HUSBAND | H |
The last thing to do is insert an extra letter in two places. To make MMA RAMOTSWE and JLB MATEKONI.
I think that’s about it. Sorry for the brevity but normal service will be resumed. I have now tested negative and I’m on the road to recovery.
Thanks to Artix.
| Across | ||
| Clue (extra word) | Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 Pop group with retro look in old series (6) | ABCEES | ABC (pop group)+SEE (rev: retro) |
| 6 Unaggressive Italian wine lacking character, largely unchilled (7) |
ANTIWAR | [chi]ANTI+WAR[m] (largely) |
| 15 A dog: this could rile komodo dragon (8) |
KOMONDOR | KOMO[do] DR[ag]ON (minus letters of A DOG) anag: could rile |
| 16 Practice chopping odd pieces of dim sum (3) |
ISM | [d]I[m] S[u]M (minus odd letters) |
| 17 ‘Woodchuck’ saying has member in tears (6) |
MARMOT | MOT (saying) around ARM (member) |
| 18 Sharp blow controls European soldier (5) |
SWEAT | European inside SWAT (sharp blow) |
| 19 Leader of platoons at Verdun and snubbed Vichy senior? (6) |
PETAIN | (double def) (I think) |
| 21 Measure of Buddhist temple’s morality close to perfect (4) |
WATT | WAT (Buddhist temple)+[perfec]T (close to) |
| 23 Extract men taking pee in public baths (7) |
POON-OIL | NO 1 (pee) inside POOL (public baths) |
| 24 Flags on DC’s wings and motors (7) |
DIESELS | DIES (flags)+ELS (wings, in USA) |
| 25 Trump’s term leading House? (10) |
PRESIDENCY | [trum]P (term)+RESIDENCY (house) |
| 30 Bad result, with one fellow lost inside subway (9) |
DEFECTIVE | DIVE (subway) around EF[f]ECT (result; minus F (one fellow)) |
| 34 Speedy (but not at first) to net dope operation (6) |
AGENCY | [r]ACY (minus first letter) around GEN (dope) |
| 36 Position Bushman within two years (5) |
ASANA | Annus (year)+SAN (bushman)+Annus (year) |
| 38 Songwriter’s pause drags life backwards (5) |
SELAH | HALES (drags; rev: backwards) |
| 39 Join tea breaks after 12 (4) | MATE | Midday (12)+TEA (anag: breaks) |
| 40 Don’t use black when knotting batik dyed fabric (4) |
IKAT | [b]ATIK (minus Black; anag: knotting) |
| 41 In message partially rejected by parliament (5) |
[par]LIAME[nt] (partially; rev: rejected) | |
| 42 Liberal Remainer adopts accepted forex standard (9) |
NUMERAIRE | REMAINER (anag: liberal) including U (accepted) |
| 43 ‘Fishy’ friend of Linnaeus carted in coffins (6) |
ARTEDI | [c]ARTED I[n] (hidden: coffins) |
| 44 Sadly I don’t see comment that’s marginalised (8) |
SIDENOTE | I DON‘T SEE (anag: sadly) |
| Down | ||
| 2 See woman work in ‘errors’ section (9) |
BISHOPESS | OP (work) inside BISHES (errors)+Section |
| 3 Luxury shoes must, essentially, be less loud to match (7) |
COMPORT | COM[f]ORT (luxury) with F (loud) changed to P (quiet) |
| 4 Inspiration from e.g. Bandicoot in game (5) |
ERATO | E O (game) around RAT (bandicoot) |
| 5 Chinese husband almost comprehends the conclusion of Kubla Khan (5) |
SERAI | SERI[c] (Chinese; almost) around [kubl]A (conclusion of) |
| 6 Archaeologist’s bracelet found in sugar mill (5) |
ARMIL | [sug]AR MIL[l] (hidden: found in) |
| 7 Carried one’s own sandwiches both sides of teatime (5) |
TOTED | TOD (one’s own) around T[eatim]E (both sides of) |
| 8 Artix’s mum and I go away … (5) | IMSHI | I‘M (Artix is – Artix being our setter)+SH (mum)+I |
| 9 …waiting on weather, content to seek my comfort (5) |
WOWEE | WOW (waiting on weather)+[s]EE[k] (content to) |
| 10 A very big city being set up again (4) |
ANEW | A+WEN (a very big city; rev: being set up) |
| 11 Study this to see current bachelor training with academy three times (11) |
BOTTLE-CHART | BACHELOR+TTT (three times) anag: training with |
| 12 Red books – and blue – in stock (10) |
TROTSKYITE | OT (books)+SKY (blue) inside TRITE (stock) |
| 13 In school reviewed same old sea creatures (10) |
HIPPODAMES | HIP (in)+POD (school)+SAME (anag: reviewed) |
| 14 Raise colonic hydrotherapy? It’s rarely pleasant (5) |
AMENE | ENEMA (colonic hydrotherapy; rev: raised) |
| 20 Spots contents of wine vat being spilled (5) |
NAEVI | [w]INE VA[t] (contents of; anag: being spilled) |
| 22 Aged 11: middle of minor years (4) |
AEON | This was a write-in, I really can’t figure it out |
| 26 Made note of de luxe Metropolitan Institute on the up (6) |
ITEMED | DE+METropolitan+Institute (rev: on the up) |
| 27 Use end of cattle prod on man who was terrible in bed (5) |
DIVAN | [pro]D (end of)+IVAN (the terrible) |
| 28 College questioned how quality Madeira is aged (6) |
CASKED | College+ASKED (questioned) |
| 29 Islander’s caught up (6) | DELIAN | NAILED (caught; rev: up) |
| 31 Having cycled roughly 5km around Shanghai, did kindle (5) |
ENLIT | I think that cycled is extra but I can’t justify it |
| 32 Telegraph see Shakespeare’s warrant (5) |
CABLE | C (see)+ABLE (warrant according to Shakespeare) |
| 33 Kind of gum processed from lime tree’s tip (5) |
ELEMI | LIME+[tre]E (tip) anag: processed from (I’m not entirely happy with this one as tree’s tip is surely T) |
| 35 Style and grace at limits, gripping Henry starkers (5) |
GENRE | G[rac]E (at limits) around [h]ENR[y] (stripped: starkers) |
| 37 Out of tune, Prince gets upset (4) |
AJAR | RAJA (prince; rev: gets upset) |
Enjoyed this one: all thanks to Artix and Kenmac (with sympathy for COVID horror and gratitude that you managed to blog at all). It took me ages to get from the setting of the stories to the flag of Botswana!
One grace note not mentioned is that all the words to be dropped from clues — at least the ones that I was sure of — came from the titles of series books: Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls, Blue Shoes and Happiness, The Colours of All the Cattle, etc etc. For this reason I don’t agree with SNUBBED as the dropped word in 19A, which I parsed as “Leader of platoons” giving P, “at Verdun and” giving the French ET, and “snubbed Vichy senior” giving French AINE with the last last dropped, the final two words doubling as the definition.
Something that bothered me was Mma Ramotswe’s vehicle, always referred to (in a kind of Homeric epithet) as her tiny white van. There’s a VAN lurking in 27D: should that too be left white despite the resulting departure from symmetry?
Sorry (and concerned) to hear about your Covid news Ken. I hope that it can’t be transmitted via a blog!! I wish you a speedy and full recovery.
I enjoyed this puzzle and had read and enjoyed the first five or so of the books, but when I looked it up on Wikipedia, I was shocked to find that there were 21 books in the series. I also read that they only became popular in this country after becoming popular in the US. I had to look up the flag of Botswana – I’m always amazed at the University Challenge teams who seem to know every flag of every country in the world. I have enough trouble remembering which is vertical and which horizontal of the German/Belgian and French/Dutch pairs.
Sadly another DNF for me … I got bogged down a little with a few of the clues, and couldn’t quite get this over the line, but it was thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless. I liked the Botswana flag colouring, clever. I couldn’t see the need for the clash either, why not just clue it for the word detective?
I actually got the S from 3D, and not from 19A, where I think that it is necessary – in 3D the word shoes was unnecessary for me.
19A is an truly fantastic clue, if you know anything of the life of the French Marshall Petain. Hero of Verdun in 1916, but deemed to have turned traitor in the Vichy government in WW2. Here’s how I got it to work : Leader of platoons = P, at Verdun and = ET (French for and) , snubbed (i.e. cut short) Vichy senior = AIN (aine = elderly person in French). An utterly brilliant clue as far as I’m concerned.
Also very clever, and very devious was 10D, for which the word ALSO works as an answer too … A very big (outsized = OS) city (LA) set up (i.e. reversed as it’s a down clue) again. That threw me off kilter for some time, only the finding of MMA MARAMOTSWE told me that the S of ALSO was incorrect, and that it should be a W. From that I found ANEW . Very devious indeed.
A lovely Inquisitor from start to finish, thanks to both setter and blogger (and hope you’re better soon).
PETAIN – @1 beat me to it!
@1 : I think that for 19A the whole clue is the definition, he led the platoons at Verdun and was the disgraced elderly of Vichy.
@5: Right you are. Even cleverer than I thought!
Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell, Kenmac. Hope you’re fully recovered soon.
I found this puzzle to be quite the struggle, and for a long time had very little entered into the grid. Once I read the preamble properly and realised that we were looking for extra words in 11 clues and not just letters, progress was a little more rapid. The endgame was nicely realised, with a satisfying bit of highlighting to close.
Your grid is missing the erasure of the six letters either side of NO 1 LADIES, though I’m sure your actual copy wasn’t. Either that or one of your clever animations is failing in my browser. 🙂
According to me, by the way, CYCLED is necessary in 31D because the “roughly 5km around Shanghai” is TEN LI which has to be cycled to get ENLIT for “kindled”.
@8 : Ditto … I got the C from COMFORT in 9D …
… and to correct my own faux pas @3 : The S of ALSO needed to be an E in ANEW from MMA RAMOTSWE (apologies for any confusion caused).
@9: Me too, “confirmed” by the book title The Double Comfort Safari Club.
Get well soon! I enjoyed the extravagant complexity of this one – so much going on, it was a real treasure hunt (or wild goose chase). One thing I don’t think has been mentioned. The reference to the “partially white row” is because the white stripes on the Botswana flag are thinner than the black one, so you’re only meant to colour in part of those two rows.
As mentioned above (@3), I didn’t completely finish this, and one of the three letters that I was missing was I. Is it really from ITALIAN in 6A? If so, then that’s another cunning bit of clueing to note then … CHIANTI as ‘wine’ and not as ‘Italian wine’. I can’t see ITALIAN in the book titles, but IN is there (in fact it’s the only word beginning with the letter I in the book titles that I can see) … so could the missing I be from In of 41A? The clue still works well if it’s the spare word. Just a thought.
Aaaaah … TEARS MORALITY MEN LIFE IN SHOES HUSBAND COMFORT ACADEMY LUXE CATTLE
I should have been a detective! 😉
They are indeed all words from the title of the books – see @1, and they are presented (in clue order) in the correct order in which the books were published! So I think that it should indeed be IN (form 41A) and not ITALIAN (from 6A) – see @12.
Ingenious. So much to like about this Inquisitor, it must have taken Artix ages to compile this little beauty.
This was a mixed experience for me. I was put off by the requirement to make an anagram of the 11 collected letters (instead of being able to read those letters in order and thereby have a much better chance of discovering the name), but I set about solving as many clues as I could anyway. Having spent too much time trying to solve 1a (ABCEES), I got the answers to that and two further clues (COMPORT and POON-OIL) with the help of a friend, leaving only 13d unsolved.
The resolved clash (F/P) at last brought the Detective Agency into plain sight, that being the only way into the theme. I remembered the author, whose name obligingly used up 11 of my 13 collected letters, allowing me to discard an F and one S. I found the two characters by looking them up, but I was unable to follow all the instructions, not knowing a coloured flag was required.
I enjoyed grappling with the clues and was disappointed that I did not solve them all. Failing to fully resolve the theme was much more familiar territory and was hardly a surprise. I shall probably remember this puzzle most for the brilliant clue to PETAIN, which I didn’t fully appreciate until I came here.
Thanks to Artix and kenmac – and, kenmac, I hope you recover quickly from the virus.
Very enjoyable puzzle with a terrific set of clues. Thanks very much.
Sorry to hear your news, and hope you recover quickly, Ken.
Thanks to setter & blogger. I agree with the corrections above re 6a, 19a, 41a, 3d, 9d & 31d but I don’t think anyone has addressed 22d yet – it’s AE (aged) + O (11) + N (middle of minor).
Not much to add as I pretty-well agree with the above, including the amendments to Kenmac’s sterling effort under a most unpleasant burden and the ALSO blind alley. I was intending to respond earlier today and report a DNF. I had found the theme fairly soon, having seen the TV shows and read some of the books and eventually managed to complete the grid correctly. However, I was totally baffled by the colouring required. Lunch, however, seemed to nourish my brain cells and the penny dropped. So, a dash to look up the flag, then another dash to find some coloured pencils.
A well-constructed puzzle with some difficult but clever clues and a satisfying finish (eventually!).
Thanks to Artix for an enjoyable journey and thanks and best wishes to Kenmac.
shikasta@16. Yes, I agree, that’s what I got.
I assume the clash was there to throw us off the ‘detective’ scent? Otherwise if you get ‘detective’ and ‘agency’ early on in the puzzle, the rest falls into place too easily?
A difficult, but very enjoyable puzzle.
Arnold @19: I thought the clash was to help in finding the eponym, since the clash had to be part of it; and the word had to be “detective” as the F was impossible in “comporF”. So a helpful push for those of us who can gaze at a grid for ages and not see the words hidden in it!
John Lowe @20. I agree. The clash was a clever feature that worked for rather than against the solver. Without it I’m sure the theme would have been completely out of my reach instead of only partially (I missed the flag).
Cracking puzzle, thanks Artix!
All good here, but I thought that the I coming from the surplus “In” in 41a was a bit weak. However, given the observation by Mshah @13, i.e. words from the book titles in the published order – which totally passed me by – it is eminently forgivable.
Unfortunately I left all of rows 5 & 7 unshaded instead of partly blue, so it would probably be classed as incorrect.
Thanks (and best wishes) go to setter & blogger.