Filbert appears to be following me around on the Fifteensquared blog schedule; this is my third encounter with him in a row, and the fifth in a couple of months. He’s always a worthy opponent, but my fellow bloggers must be getting jealous by now.
Some of the clues here were quite tricky, with obscure meanings of words (1a, 18d), slightly questionable definitions (15a), or somewhat non-standard clue constructions (9a, 19a and 11d) – but all guessable. I think Filbert has tried to get as much mileage as possible out of the Tuesday theme, and ended up with a few rather contrived clues as a result. Plenty to enjoy, though – I particularly liked 8a for both the surface and the sneaky definition, 10a for the plausible surface, and 20a for the pun.
Oh, yes, the theme. Fairly obvious today, with references to lots of book titles (in italics) and authors – though we don’t need more than a minimal knowledge of the books, if any at all, to solve the clues. And there’s an appropriate Nina in the first and last columns, though as usual I didn’t notice that until I’d finished the puzzle. Thanks (again) to Filbert for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CRUSADE |
Campaign ad covers front of office in maroon (7)
|
| CRUS[o]E (maroon, as a noun = a person marooned on an island, such as Robinson Crusoe), with AD replacing (covering) the O which is the front letter of “office”. I hadn’t come across this noun sense of “maroon” before, but both Chambers and Collins recognise it, though the latter says the usage is “rare”. | ||
| 5 | PROTEA |
For leaves, Flora of South Africa (6)
|
| PRO (for = in support of) + TEA (dried leaves).
A flowering plant (flora) from South Africa, used as a nickname for some of their sports teams. |
||
| 8 | TOILET SOAP |
T S Eliot disturbed retiree in bar with perfume (6,4)
|
| Anagram (disturbed) of T S ELIOT, then OAP (abbreviation for old-age pensioner = retiree). | ||
| 9 | FITS |
Mates Scott and Gerald divided by the sound of it (4)
|
| Homophone (by the sound of it) of FITZ, which “divides” Scott and Gerald in the name of the writer F Scott Fitzgerald.
Mate, as a verb = fit = connect as one of two complementary parts. |
||
| 10 | ANIMAL |
Dictator embraced by the French, after revolution – Napoleon, according to Orwell (6)
|
| AMIN (Idi Amin, former military dictator in Uganda) contained in (embraced by) LA (feminine form of “the” in French), all reversed (after revolution).
Napoleon (a pig) is a character in Animal Farm by George Orwell. |
||
| 12 | INCOMER |
New visitor mad on crime (7)
|
| Anagram (mad) of ON CRIME. | ||
| 13 | KHAT |
African leaves End of Watch by King, old volunteers taken aback (4)
|
| End letter of [watc]H after K (abbreviation for king in chess or playing cards), then TA (abbreviation for Territorial Army = old name for what is now the Army Reserve = military volunteers) reversed (taken aback).
Leaves chewed as a psychoactive stimulant, popular in eastern Africa. |
||
| 15 | GINGER BEER |
Greene and half of Brighton rock to 17’s pop (6,4)
|
| Anagram (rock, as a verb = wobble) of GREENE + the first half of BRIG[hton].
The sort of drink favoured by the Famous Five, characters created by Enid Blyton (17a). The commonly-quoted phrase “lashings of ginger beer” doesn’t actually appear in her books, but is first recorded in a parody of them: Five Go Mad in Dorset by The Comic Strip. |
||
| 17 | ENID BLYTON |
Tiny blonde novel writer criticised for being dumb (4,6)
|
| Anagram (novel = new) of TINY BLONDE.
Writer of children’s stories which the BBC refused to feature for some years, saying they didn’t have much literary merit. Blyton’s work has been criticised for many things over the years, mostly for continuing to reflect the attitudes of the early 20th century when the rest of the world had moved on. |
||
| 19 | OISE |
Part of France which Esio Trot‘s first name comes from? (4)
|
| Esio Trot is the title of a Roald Dahl story, and represents “tortoise” backwards; hence ESIO comes from [tort]OISE.
A department (administrative region) in the north of France. |
||
| 20 | SUBTEXT |
Das Boot typed with thumbs? It’s not obvious to the reader (7)
|
| Das Boot (The Boat) is a German novel (and later a film) about a submarine (sub for short). If you wrote about it in a text message on your phone (probably typed with your thumbs), that would be a SUB TEXT.
A “hidden meaning” in a written or spoken text, which reveals the thoughts of the author but isn’t stated explicitly. |
||
| 22 | RUSSIA |
Person in a hurry read out scene of War and Peace (6)
|
| Homophone (read out) of RUSHER = someone rushing = person in a hurry.
The location of Tolstoy’s long and complex historical novel. |
||
| 24 | IRON |
One of Elements, and not one Through the Looking Glass (4)
|
| NOR (and not) + I (one in Roman numerals), all reversed (through the looking glass).
A chemical element. |
||
| 25 | DREAMWORLD |
Doctor Marlowe fashioned, leading character in devilish fantasy (10)
|
| DR (abbreviation for doctor) + anagram (fashioned = made) of MARLOWE + first (leading) letter of D[evilish]. | ||
| 27 | TEASER |
Time to relax with reading/writing puzzle (6)
|
| T (abbreviation for time) + EASE (to relax) + R (one of the “three Rs” of basic education: reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic). | ||
| 28 | SPLASHY |
Whip in The Secret Agent for show (7)
|
| LASH (whip) in SPY (secret agent).
Splashy = for show = done to attract attention. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CLOWN |
Comic of little value new, cents tops (5)
|
| LOW (of little value) + N (abbreviation for new), with C (abbreviation for cents) at the beginning (tops, in a down clue). | ||
| 2 | UNLIMITED |
One holding 26 up, edition not bound (9)
|
| UNIT (one), holding MIL (26d) reversed (up = upwards in a down clue), then ED (abbreviation for edition). | ||
| 3 | ACT |
Some drama fellow misplaced in non-fiction (3)
|
| [f]ACT (non-fiction) without the F (abbreviation for fellow).
A major division of a play (for example Acts 1 and 2 separated by an interval). |
||
| 4 | EMOTION |
Feeling upset by large bestseller in 16? (7)
|
| Tome = a large book, so a large bestseller in a BOOKSHOP (16d) could be a NO I (Number 1) TOME; all reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue). | ||
| 5 | PIPE CLEANER |
Dickensian lad starts to explain chimney-sweeping, thinner brush for narrow flue (4,7)
|
| PIP (a young lad in the Dickens novel Great Expectations) + starting letters of E[xplain] C[himney-sweeping] + LEANER (thinner). | ||
| 6 | OXFAM |
Fantastic Mr Fox making robbery primarily a charitable enterprise (5)
|
| Anagram (fantastic) of M[r] FOX, with the R (first letter of R[obbery]) replaced by A.
Charitable organization, originally founded as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. |
||
| 7 | ENTER KEYS |
Carriage returns, queen collecting Notes From a Small Island (5,4)
|
| ER (the late Queen Elizabeth II), containing N (abbreviation for note) + TE (another note, this time one in the musical sol-fa scale), hence “notes”; then KEY’S (belonging to a key = a small island).
Enter key on a computer keyboard, used to mark the end of a line of text; sometimes called “carriage return” after the corresponding mechanism on a mechanical typewriter. |
||
| 11 | LEGAL TENDER |
Pound for one Allende with a line crossed through, right money (5,6)
|
| L (abbreviation for a pound sterling, from Latin libra) + EG (for one = for example), then AL[l]ENDE (presumably the novelist Isabel Allende) with the second L “crossed through” to make it into a T, then R (abbreviation for right).
Legal tender = a form of money that can legally be offered and accepted as currency. |
||
| 14 | HANDS-FREE |
Staff paid nothing worked safely without touching (5-4)
|
| HANDS (staff, especially on a ship, as in “all hands on deck”) + FREE (paid nothing). | ||
| 16 | BOOKSHOPS |
Some 6 outlets smell, certainly hot inside concessions (9)
|
| BO (abbreviation for body odour = smell) + OK (certainly = an expression of assent), then H (abbreviation for hot) inside SOPS (concessions = things given to appease someone).
Oxfam (6d) has a range of charity shops, many of which are specialist second-hand bookshops. |
||
| 18 | TOTTERS |
Second-hand dealer’s wobbles when walking (7)
|
| Double definition. Totter’s = belonging to a “totter”, a dealer in scrap materials (according to Chambers); or totters, as a verb = walks unsteadily. | ||
| 21 | BONDS |
Security instruments of The Spy Who Loved Me (5)
|
| Double definition. A financial security instrument, where money is lent for interest; or Bond’s = belonging to James Bond, title character of the Ian Fleming novel The Spy Who Loved Me (or of the film of the same name, which doesn’t have much to do with the book). | ||
| 23 | ISLAY |
Island with butcher, Whisky Galore there (5)
|
| I (abbreviation for island) + SLAY (butcher, as a verb = massacre).
Island in the Hebrides famous for its whisky production. |
||
| 26 | MIL |
A Brontë’s inside small volume (3)
|
| Inner letters (inside) of [e]MIL[y], one of the Brontë sisters.
Abbreviation for millilitre, formerly used in pharmaceutical prescriptions. |
I struggled with this and DNF, failing at 7D, which I shouldn’t have done on reflection. Felt a bit shaky about some of my parsings but they were confirmed by the blog. Spotted the nina though. Thanks Filbert and Quirister.
Looked impenetrable at the outset. Tops for me is ENTER KEYS and big ticks also for ANIMAL (tried Stalin), RUSSIA and ‘bar with perfume’. Good theme done well. Missed the Nina. Oh well, take that as read. Thanks Quirister and Filbert.
This was really hard and had to do lots of reveals to keep going. Cleverest clue for me was SUBTEXT (which I didn’t get).
Thanks both. Filbert is always tricky, but this just felt difficult, made more so as some answers were linked, which is fine so long as you have the answer to what is referenced, which for a long time I did not. SUBTEXT inspires me to reveal I have never typed with my thumbs, and I’m not sure I’m the right age to start. I appreciate crosswords use ‘mirror’ or in this case ‘looking glass’ to indicate a reversal, but in practice it doesn’t work, which is my feeble excuse for entering iris instead of IRON initially.
I found this very tough. Got through it eventually but needed some reveals – the nho maroon as a noun, the whimsical SUBTEXT, TOTTERS as dealers. I was also thrown earlier in the puzzle by RUSSIA; crossers do sort it out but it seems to me that clue could just as easily lead to RUSHER.
Thanks both
Another RUSHER here, though only in the sense of guessing 22ac wrong at first. As I often mistype d as s, I just assumed all the letters in Das Boot were going to be adjacent to ones in SUBTEXT. I liked OXFAM and BOOKSHOP among many others. Thanks to Quirister and Filbert, a perfect match in my opinion.
Thanks Filbert and Quirister
I suspect that the icing on the thematic cake is that you can find all sorts of books, like the varied titles here, secondhand in an OXFAM BOOKSHOP.
Found this tough, but completed. What I enjoy more and more with Filbert is every clue has me looking in the wrong place until one or two fall into place.
Favourite, the sub text although I bunged in subplot to begin with.
Thanks Filbert and thanks Quirister for filling in some of my knowledge gaps, having read more Secret Sevens (all of them) than Roald Dahls (none).
Hard crossword today, favourite: bookshop.
Thanks Filbert and Quirister,
In science, we abbreviate the millilitre as (ml) so I am wondering how it could be (mil). I don’t posses your fancy dictionaries. (LOL)
In military science, a mil is the smallest unit of angle used. 6400 mil is equivalent to 360 degrees.
AS @ 10 ‘mil’ is how ml is pronounced, eg ‘add 250ml of water’ on the page would be spoken as ‘add 250 mil of water’.
We ran out of time last night and have only just sat down today.
Bert loves ginger beer and whenever he buys some he always says that he likes ‘lashings of ginger beer’. Thanks for the blog Quirister for putting him straight as he always thought he was quoting Enid Blyton.
Fairly tricky we thought, full of Filbert’s deviousness. it wasn’t until the end that we spotted the nina.
Thanks to S&B.