Great – another offering from Chalicea! Never too hard, but always well-made and enjoyable.
The preamble this time is brief and to the point: 3dn is the writer of 1a. The perimeter gives a quote (which therefore includes the title’s words), its speaker and addressee. Seven other entries are clued by wordplay only and are the names of a selection of characters.
DASHing in we focussed on the entries at the top of the grid. Before long we had ??DO???????? as the writer’s name, and after a bit of sniffing it was apparent that the only serious candidate was ALDOUS HUXLEY – and when BRAVE NEW WORLD then fitted in neatly at 1a we were on the move. “Brave new world” doesn’t appear in a quotable quote from that book, but was borrowed from ‘The Tempest’ where MIRANDA says to PROSPERO ‘O BRAVE NEW WORLD THAT HAS SUCH PEOPLE IN’T’ – and that was the perimeter sorted.
Back then to the grid fill, and with Chalicea’s clues being as generous and orthodox as usual we made quick progress. With about half entered we decided to look for the seven characters. LENINA, HENRY and LINDA from ‘Brave New World’ were already there, but NEAPOLITANS at 11d told us that we needed to look for some from ‘The Tempest’ as well, and the final set including ALONSO, CALIBAN and ARIEL were soon being entered in, and the remainder completed at some speed.
One of Chalicea’s gifts is to write the clues in what we might call ordinary English – quite a facility – so no real pyrotechnics but a solid and satisfying set. We were glad to read that the fish had a healthy colour by the conclusion of cookery (13a: RUDDY) but worried that she was right out of sweetener for drink (31d: IMBIBE), which won’t do for an Oenophile Club founder, so something suitably sticky must be sent over a.s.a.p.. And thanks of course for an EXEMPLARY puzzle.
Vagans