Solving time 10:07
Sorry for the lateness of the post, but I’ve been away from the computer all day and only just got round to solving it.
Typical Rufus with lots of cryptic definitions, and there were some good ones today. I especially liked 20A and 17A.
Across
9 TESTATOR – CD, and an old chestnut.
14 REL(OC)ATE – OC = CO rev.
17 CURTAINS – CD. I liked this one, but wonder about the optional (not necessarily) quartering!
20 COOKERY BOOKS – Really good CD. I thought it would probably be …BOOKS, but didn’t think about it further until I had some crossing letters.
23 GYRATE – tragedy* – d
24 LITERARY (it rarely)* – Good surface reading. I didn’t spot it as an anagram right away.
26 ENW(new*),RAP
Down
5 THREE BRASS BALLS – the symbol of a pawnshop, and to pop is to pawn something. Not in any dictionaries that I could see, but should be familiar to most.
8 I’LL BUY THAT – Another one that I suspected of not being in the dictionary, but surprisingly it is, under buy in Chambers.
12 PSEUDONYMS (send my opus)*
15 CORKS,CREW
16 DISRAELI (L,diaries)* – Benjamin Disraeli was a novelist as well as a politician, although the only one I’ve come across is Coningsby, as there was a thematic crossword based on it earlier in the year. Can’t remember which, maybe the Spectator?
16D: Benjamin DISRAELI was Prime Minister in an age when that office allowed more spare time, and wrote several novels, of which the most celebrated was probably ‘Sybil, or The Two Nations’ – which popularised the ‘two nations’ concept of social Conservatism (perhaps he should have titled it ‘The Oxymoron’?)
Several bloggers and correspondents have complained about the large proportion of anagrams in recent Rufus offerings. This one was notable for the prevalence of clues consisting of a single cryptic definition – I counted 8. Personally, I find that a bit too much for my taste, but Rufus does do them well. I think the ‘quartered’ in the clue to 17A helps to emphasise the decoy surface meaning – without it, the required reading would have been too obvious. And curtains can be ‘quartered’ in the sense that those covering a large window may be in four separate sections.
17A I thought there was a play on curtains also meaning “the death of you”. So, curtains can be hung (not hanged) and drawn, but you wouldn’t kill them.
A vg clue.
5D I once heard (in Canada) an explanation of the song “Pop goes the weasel”, as sung by Anthony Newley, with Pop meaning to pawn. Can’t remeber what the Weasel was.
Weasel and stoat = Coat
All my sources say that the pawnbroker’s sign is three golden balls, but brass is that colour.