Mev has provided today’s teaser to keep the old brain ticking over on this cold winter’s day.
I found this to be towards the hard end of the Indy spectrum in terms of difficulty, with quite a lot of lengthy clues with rather intricate wordplay. By the time I had completed the top half of the grid, I still had barely any solutions in the bottom half, and the SE quadrant proved to be particularly tricky today for me.
I am relatively happy with all my parsings except for 21A, where I suspect that I may be missing a trick – indeed I was, now corrected!
My favourites today were 5, for including bird references also in the wordplay; and 20, for the ingenious use of “discs” and “wings”. I am not sure that I have encountered a clue like 24 before, with every third letter only being used in the wordplay to a 9-letter solution.
Incidentally, there appears to be a ghost theme running through this puzzle: the English author Daphne (in clue at 18) Du Maurier (in clue at 20) and partial or full references to the names of her novels, Jamaica (=entry at 21D) Inn, Rebecca (in clue at 6), My Cousin Rachel (in clue at 7), The Loving Spirit (=entries at 9 and 23), The King’s General (=entries at 25 and 15), and perhaps more … – and more there were!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PROGRESS | President of the Royal Society limits monster’s development
OGRE’S (=monster’s) in PRS (=President of the Royal Society) |
| 05 | FALCON | One that stoops in autumn – short-tailed rook
FAL<l> (=autumn; “short-tailed” means last letter is dropped) + CON (=rook, fleece, deceive) |
| 10 | WINNEBAGO | Garbo swims right out after Victor docked in Wisconsin lake
WINNE<r> (=victor; “docked”, as of tail, means last letter dropped) + *(GA<r>BO); “right (=R) out” means letter “r” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “swims”; Lake Winnebago is the largest lake located entirely within the state of Wisconsin |
| 11 | GLASS | Good girl tumbler?
G (=good) + LASS (=girl); a tumbler is a kind of drinking glass |
| 12 | OZONE | Little weight unit, and another for gas
OZ (=weight unit, i.e. ounce; “little” indicates abbreviation) + ONE (=unit) |
| 13 | LEICESTER | Deviously elect Sire Dudley (as he was historically known)
*(ELECT SIRE); “deviously” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532-88), English statesman and favourite of Elizabeth I |
| 14 | FLIGHT | Following soft steps
F (=following) + LIGHT (=soft); cf. a flight of steps |
| 15 | GENERAL | Kelly really regularly dispatched someone in the military
GENE (=Kelly, i.e. US actor) + R<e>A<l>L<y> (“regularly despatched” means alternate letters are dropped) |
| 18 | DEBASED | Lowered the moral character of Daphne’s missing content when retired?
D<aphn>E (“missing content” means all but first and last letters are dropped) + [AS (=when, as conjunction) in BED (“retired”, i.e. in bed!)] |
| 21 | JULIUS | Seize her in the auditorium, Groucho!
(Kind of) homophone (“in the auditorium”) of “seize her”, i.e. (Julius) Caesar; the reference is to Julius Henry Marx, aka Groucho Marx (1890-1977) |
| 24 | CLOAKROOM | Social group at skid row, Oxford met occasionally in clothes store
<so>C<ia>L <gr>O<up> A<t s>K<id> R<ow> O<xf>O<rd> M<et>; “occasionally” means every third letter only is used, here throughout the whole of the wordplay part of the clue! |
| 26 | SCAMP | Rapscallion’s initially suspicious about politician
S<uspicious> (“initially” means first letter only) + CA (=about, i.e. circa) + MP (=politician, i.e. Member of Parliament) |
| 27 | TWEEN | Quaint northern child growing up fast?
TWEE (=quaint, sentimentally pretty) + N (=northern); a tween is a tweenager, i.e. a child behaving as a teenager before actually being one! |
| 28 | PHILANDER | Have a fling with two royals who’ve departed in recent times
PHIL and ER, i.e. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II (=two royals who’ve departed, i.e. died, in recent times) |
| 29 | DESIST | Stop South Asian living abroad with holy woman?
DESI (=South Asian living abroad, i.e. from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh) + ST (=holy woman, i.e. saint) |
| 30 | MAX ERNST | Dadaist of the highest level, finally de Winter can transgress art
MAX (=of the highest level, i.e. maximum) + <d>E <winte>R <ca>N <transgres>S <ar>T (“finally” means last letters only are used); the reference is to German artist and sculptor Max Ernst (1891-1976) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | POWWOW | Discuss prisoner having one ring between two wives
POW (=prisoner, i.e. prisoner of war) + [O (=one ring, i.e. pictorially) in W W (=wives, i.e. 2 x w=wife)]; to (have a) powwow is to confer, discuss |
| 02 | OWN GOAL | Working outside West Indian state line is a detrimental move
[W (=west) in ON (=working, of e.g. machine)] + GOA (=Indian state) + L (=line) |
| 03 | RE-EMERGES | What hibernator hopefully does about, say, soldiers returning with spades
RE (=about, regarding) + EMERGE (E.G.=say + REME=soldiers, i.e. Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers; “returning” indicates reversal) + S (=spades, in cards) |
| 04 | SHALLOT | Regressive ayatollah still restricts this foodstuff
Reversed (“regressive”) and hidden (“restricts”) in ayaTOLLAH Still” |
| 06 | ARGUE | Rebecca’s back, with regret about grand feud
<rebecc>A (“back” means last letter only) + [G (=grand, i.e. 1000$) in RUE (=(to)regret)] |
| 07 | CHANTER | Rachel endlessly reviewed books inside Melody Maker
NT (=books, i.e. New Testament) in *(RACHE<l>); “endlessly” means last letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “reviewed”; in bagpiping, the chanter is the pipe with fingerholes on which the melody is played, hence “melody maker”. |
| 08 | NOSTRILS | Ron lists broken vents
*(RON LISTS); “broken” is anagram indicator; nostrils are airholes that enable breathing, hence “vents” |
| 09 | LOVING | Really enjoying getting the answers without first dropping the ball
<s>O-LVING (=getting the answers); “without first” means first letter is dropped; “dropping the ball (=O)” means that letter “o” moves to a later position in the word |
| 16 | NULL-SPACE | Plan clues entangled in concept of linear algebra
*(PLAN CLUES); “entangled” is anagram indicator; in mathematics, the null space is the kernel of a linear map – we live and learn! |
| 17 | EDUCATED | Enlightened writer’s boss holds up English antique coin
E (=English) + DUCAT (=antique coin) + ED. (=writer’s boss, i.e. editor) |
| 19 | BLOWERS | Hub in Menabilly drops telephones
<mena>B<illy> (“hub” means middle letter only) + LOWERS (=drops, reduces) |
| 20 | DROOPY | Du Maurier’s first and last discs by Paul McCartney’s Wings are feeble
D<u Maurie>R (“first and last” means first and last letters only) + O O (=discs, pictorially) + P<aul McCartne>Y (“wings” means first and last letters only) |
| 21 | JAMAICA | Force chartered accountants’ organisation to admit a country
JAM (=force, push forcefully) + A + ICA (=chartered accountants’ organisation, i.e. Institute of Chartered Accountants) |
| 22 | UGANDAN | Upstanding banana DNA guy protects one from Africa
Reversed (“upstanding”) and hidden (“protects”) in “banaNA DNA Guy” |
| 23 | SPIRIT | Some rays of light seen in headland fire
IR (=some rays of light, i.e. infrared) in SPIT (=headland, tongue of land); fire is passion, enthusiasm, hence “spirit” |
| 25 | KINGS | Two books of family genealogies with only the covers remaining
KIN (=family) + G<enealogie>S (“with only the covers remaining” means all but first and last letters are dropped); there are two Books of Kings in the Old Testament |
Julius
Max (de Winter not Ernst)
Flight of the Falcon
Menabilly (her home for 20 years and real world inspiration for Manderley)
Rachel
(The) Glass Blowers
Thanks Setter and Blogger
I do wonder about cross paper collaboration as today’s theme “over there” was one of her most famous short stories. Regarding the other – it would not surprise me if Don’t Look Now is there somewhere
In 21a, we have a homophone of Caesar.
JULIUS
I had the same parsing as Hovis@3.
JULIUS
I didn’t feel comfortable with the clue. Unable to pinpoint the problem.
I too had a very N/S divide today. I had completed the top half of the grid before I even attempted any of the bottom half. I assumed I was going to breeze through it but the south side proved much more obstinate for me. Probably took me 4 times as long to complete that as the top.
I spent far too long trying to “force” AMERICA into 21d which slowed me down. Also I’m not sure what was going on with my brain but even knowing I was after a synonym for a telephone beginning with B and ending in E _ S I struggled like mad to conjure it. Isn’t it odd how these things happen sometimes.
Only got JULIUS after revealing the last letter in the online app which was another head in hands moment.
Ah well it was all good clean fun in the end.
Obviously missed the theme entirely.
Thanks as always to Mev and RR.
Like the Gauls, I was defeated by Julius. Spent ages trying to think of a Du Maurier character called Sa—b. Not my finest hour
The Progress of Julius (1933) (later re-published as Julius)
Thanks RR, and commenters.
I originally started off the grid trying to get some of her more well-known works in, but they didn’t want to play, so we have some other titles. “Julius” was originally titled “The PROGRESS of JULIUS”. Matthew @1 & @2 has found the other references, though the INN is hiding in Winnebago. I knew nothing of when any other puzzles might appear (hm? eh? I shall have to go and look…), but I don’t know if any editors did! Just a coincidence, I expect. I had vaguely hoped this one might have sneaked into 2023 for the 60th & 90th anniversaries (by year – I couldn’t find the exact dates) of the publications of The Glass Blowers and The Progress of Julius, but they weren’t particularly significant (or precise! 🙂 ), so never mind – any publishing date is a good one.
There were 3 of these I hadn’t read when I originally set it, but I’ve since caught up and now only Flight Of The Falcon remains on my reading pile.
Thanks to a certain upstanding (singing) banana guy for fact-checking my maths.
Also experienced the N/S divide but finally cracked it. Liked PHILANDER, BLOWERS and CLOAKROOM among a grid of very enjoyable clues. Thanks.
Thanks Mev. I haven’t read any for many years but may revisit now. I went through them like nobody’s business after seeing (and being blown away by) Don’t Look Now and being told by parents that the short story was upstairs if I wanted to read it.
In 7D surely the chanter refers to the part of the bagpipes on which the melody is played…
Found this fairly easy going today but being well up on the Marx brothers and knowing the Dadaist helped.
Thanks to Mev and RR
Interesting what is difficult for whom. Yesterday’s Filbert totally defeated me; when I came to the blog it was clear that there were a lot of references that are unfamiliar to someone who’s not from the UK. Today got going much faster, and although Julius was confirmed as Groucho’s given name I couldn’t properly parse it until I came here. This one just more on my wavelength. Thanks to setter and blogger!
Thanks both. I needed to address a few of these like a concise crossword, or just fill gaps with the most plausible word e.g. SPIRIT during which I failed initially on JULIUS as I decided the homophone was instructing us to start with ‘Jel’ for gel, meaning seize….not to worry I wouldn’t have solved it in any event, as I lacked both the knowledge and the unlikely pronunciation
redddevil @12: Yes, I did mean the bagpipe’s chanter.
The “seize her” gag was nicked from (iirc?) Carry On Cleo.
Cheers all!
Tricky in places as others said. In our case made trickier by never having heard of desi, Winnebago as a lake, and Groucho’s given name.
Thanks to Hovis@3 and KVa@4 for setting me straight on 21, and to reddevil@12 and Mev@15 for doing the same in respect of 7. And chapeau to all those who spotted even more literary works!
Beaten by JULIUS, but happy to doff my hat as the clue is fair enough. Didn’t have the GK or the insight, more fool me.
Really enjoyed the rest of the puzzle.