Inquisitor 1847: Out of the Shadows by Cranberry

14 comments on “Inquisitor 1847: Out of the Shadows by Cranberry”

1. It was quite hard work getting far enough with the clues and the grid to get a start on the theme. In fact it was the character’s name (SCARFACE CLAW, missing only one letter at that stage) that came first, from which the author’s name became clear. I made a list of the 21 characters I found, and from these I found the six names that fitted.

   Of the six thematic clues, the only one I had solved before the theme opened up was HAIRY, but I really should have got SCHNITZEL, HERCULES and BITZER as well – they were excellent clues. MUFFIN and BOTTOMLEY were harder, and I needed to find those first.

   Ken, I’m sure CIE (Compagnie) is the French equivalent of our Co.

   Thanks to Cranberry and kenmac.

2. From the original book:

   “With tails in air
   they trotted on down
   past the shops and the park
   to the far end of town.

   They sniffed at the smells
   and snooped at each door
   when suddenly,
   out of the shadows
   they
   saw….

   SCARFACE CLAW
   the toughest Tom
   in
   town.

   “EEEEEOWWWFFTZ!”
   said Scarface Claw.

   Of with a yowl
   a wail and a howl,
   a scatter of paws
   and a clatter of claws,
   went Schnitzel Von Krumm
   with a very low tum,
   Bitzer Maloney
   all skinny and bony,
   Muffin McLay
   like a bundle of hay,
   Bottomley Potts
   covered in spots,
   Hercules Morse
   as big as a horse
   and Hairy Maclary
   from Donaldson’s Dairy,
   straight back home
   to bed!”

3. All thanks to Cranberry and kenmac! Great fun again, though I was utterly baffled until I saw both SCARFACE emerging and the clashes with the obvious 18D answer SCHNITZEL. So tried Googling both and was taken to the Hairy Maclary saga, previously unknown to me like its author, although it’s famous enough that there are public statues of the dogs (plus cat) in New Zealand. I think the dogs go in backwards because they’re all running away from the dread Scarface Claw, who in the story has emerged OUT OF THE SHADOWS.

4. If the ‘thematic’ entry of the dogs is that they’re entered backwards because they’re going home, all I can say is that brings a whole new meaning to the word ‘tenuous’ and is worthy of 3-2-1 at its most opaque

5. One of my good friends is a Kiwi and he practically forced this book on me when we both had small kids. So much so that a “Schnitzel Von” character was lodged in my brain, so it was easy enough from there.

   I would respectfully disagree with Bingy @4 in that I felt that entering names backwards was a very elegant way to illustrate the dogs turning on the spot when encountering Scarface Claw!

   Thank you to setter and blogger.

6. Didnt mind this but would rater stick to T S Eliot

7. Alan B @1

   Ah – looks like you’re right. Realise now that the Irish one I quoted isn’t actually a company.

   Cie does indeed seem to mean Compagnie but it’s quite hard to find any info on it.

   https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE

8. Also, Kenmac, I think you missed highlighting the E in MORSE (which of course doesn’t really matter, but then we’re all perfectionists here :-))

9. arnold @8

   Oops! Fixed!

10. I agree with Arnold@5: the dogs turn tail and therefore reverse, which is perfectly logical. My trouble with this one was not realising that, while there would only be one letter per row removed, and hence only one letter in any across clue, that didn’t apply to columns and so to Down clues. Cue much bewilderment at how to parse what looked straightforward answers such as CLOSE SEASON and ICARIAN, because the wordplay wasn’t producing the right number of letters. But eventually I dredged up Scarface Claw from reading to my daughter and I realised what was going on. I had never met Inge the playwright, though I can see the value of the word for a compiler; I suppose that Inge joins the id(e), the z(h)o, ling etc as an everyday feature of crosswordland.

11. Over here, of course, we remember that she is Dame Lynley Dodd. Absolutely charmed to see this theme crop up as a reminder of how far her books have travelled!

12. What a delight!

    We love reading the book to our grandchildren so when we both thought of HAIRY for 1ac we immediately thought of MACLARY but then thought …….. surely not.

    It wasn’t until much later that Bert laughed out loud and said that he thought he had the theme but couldn’t quite believe it. Much better than some high-brow poetry as far as we are concerned although a John Betjeman one would go down well.

    Our son now does the IQ as well and was pleased to be able to show our 7yr old grandson (well, almost 8!) the completed grid during the week.

    Many thanks to Cranberry and kenmac.

13. Forgot to mention that we were puzzled by the title and had to search on line for the book. We both laughed out loud when Scarface appeared. Our son, who is far more familiar with the book as it is popular with all the 3 children saw the relevance straight away.

14. My very first Inquisitor was a Cranberry so it’s always a pleasure to see him back. The theme here was a NHO for me but Google is my friend so it all fell into place in the end. Like others I was initially unsure why the thematic entries went in backwards but the quote provided by Arnold @2 explains it nicely. The ‘spare letter per row’ device added an extra dimension that slowed me down in some places and sped me up in others! I guess sometimes it’s a case of giving your brain time to ‘tune in’ to a device.

    Many thanks to both of you.

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