Radian can often be found as a setter for the Independent on Tuesday
Radian has compiled puzzles with literary themes in the past with Shakespeare frequently taking centre stage. Today we focused on the life and times of Charles Dickens. Google associated quite a few of the entries with Dickens in terms of his private life and his books. Some of the associations are fairly tenuous but the stronger ones are CHARLES, LETTER (he was a man of LETTERs and there is a Charles Dickens LETTERs project), JOURNALIST (his main job), SCROOGE, GHOSTS (both from a Christmas Carol), NOVELIST, and INSTALMENT (many of his works were originally published in this form)
The more tenuous ones are DOMESTIC (there are stories that he had rows with his wife in the latter days of his marriage), COPPER (indeed the clue makes a explicit reference to David COPPERfield), GRILLING (an episode in David Copperfield where Mr Micawber gives advice on GRILLING), WEPT (apparently Dickens cried a lot when writing), PARANORMAL (he was a member of a PARANORMAL society), and LITTLE (LITTLE Dorrit)
There was a good bit of misdirection with ‘haver’ in the clue at 9 across. I liked the surface of the clue for DRAB.
Overall, an enjoyable Tuesday challenge.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 8 | Household Words? (8) |
DOMESTIC (household) DOMESTIC |
DOMESTIC (row between people living in the same house, usually a couple; words) double definition |
| 9 | Haver, beginning to abandon drug (5) |
OWNER |
OWNER (one who has; haver) |
| 10 | Go round denying Republican’s remarks on passing (4) |
O OBIT |
OBIT (OBITuary [an account of a deceased person]; remarks on passing) |
| 11 | Screening show about sleuth Italian’s backing (10) |
PROVE (demonstrate; show) containing (about) (TEC [detective] + IT [Italian] reversed [backing]) PRO (TEC TI<) VE |
PROTECTIVE (sheltering; screening) |
| 12 | Dickens protagonist rebuffs field officer (6) |
COPPER COPPER |
COPPER (policeman; officer) |
| 14 | Good call about hostile interrogation (8) |
(G [good] +(RING [call]) containing [about] ILL [hostile]) G R (ILL) ING |
GRILLING (interrogation) |
| 15 | Prince Charming wants china the French added (7) |
CHAR CHAR LES |
CHARLES (reference Prince CHARLES [born 1949], first in line to the throne of the United Kingdom) |
| 17 | Scatter most of the crumbs (7) |
STREW (scatter) + TH STREW TH |
STREWTH (an oath expressed as an interjection of surprise, expressing the same sentiment as the similar interjection ‘crumbs’) |
| 20 | Worried sea dog in rocks (8) |
Anagram of (rocks) SEA DOG IN AGONISED* |
AGONISED (worried intensely) |
| 22 | Latvian ruler’s character (6) |
LETT (Latvian) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; Queen; ruler) LETT ER |
LETTER (character) |
| 23 | Hack majority of trip with top celebs (10) |
JOURN JOURN ALIST |
JOURNALIST (a HACK is a JOURNALISTic drudge) |
| 24 | Lacklustre Eisteddfod winner retired (4) |
BARD (poet whose work has won a competition at the Eisteddfod) reversed (retired) DRAB< |
DRAB (uninteresting; lacklustre) |
| 25 | Deal from cedar trees brought back (5) |
TRADE (reversed [brought back] hidden word [from] in CEDAR TREES) TRADE< |
TRADE (deal) |
| 26 | Old liberal teacher withdraws evidence of Book 9 (2,6) |
EX (old) + LIB (liberal) + SIR (form of address for a teacher) reversed (withdraws) EX LIB RIS< |
EX LIBRIS (name-label pasted into the front of a book, something indicating the OWNER [9 across] of the book) |
| Down | |||
| 1 |
Tax point in addition covers large hotel (8) |
(TO BOOT [in addition] containing [covers] L [large]) + H (hotel) TO (L) BOOT H |
TOLBOOTH (an office where tolls or taxes are or were collected; tax point) |
| 2 |
Women’s record time greeted effusively (4) |
W (women) + EP (extended play record) + T (time) W EP T |
WEPT (cried [greeted is a Scottish term for cried] effusively) |
| 3 | Senseless state positions retreating troops (6) |
PUTS (positions) reversed (retreating) + OR (other ranks; troops) STUP< OR |
STUPOR (state of near-unconsciousness) |
| 4 | Skinflint goes crazy munching odd bits of carrot (7) |
Anagram of (crazy) GOES containing (munching) CRO (letters 1, 3 and 5 [odd bits] of CARROT) S (CRO) OGE* |
SCROOGE (miser; skinflint) |
| 5 | Love is thwarted in books one writes (8) |
Anagram of (thwarted) LOVE IS contained in (in) NT (New Testament; books) N (OVELIS*) T |
NOVELIST (a person who writes) |
| 6 | Left writer fitting in second episode (10) |
(L [left] + ME [the writer]) contained in (fitting in) INSTANT (very brief period of time, e.g. a second) INSTA (L ME) NT |
INSTALMENT (one of a series; episode) |
| 7 | Yellow and black bird caught first (6) |
C (caught) + RAVEN (example of a black bird) C RAVEN |
CRAVEN (cowardly; yellow) |
| 13 | Irrational old man conducted test involving medium (10) |
PA (father; old man) + RAN (conducted) + (ORAL [exam; test] containing [involving] M [medium]) PA RAN OR (M) AL |
PARANORMAL (not explicable by the laws of nature or reason; irrational) |
| 16 | Finish importing European energy working in hardship (8) |
END (finish) containing (importing) (SLAV [example of a European] + E [energy]) EN (SLAV E) D |
ENSLAVED (subjected to a dominating influence; working in hardship) |
| 18 | Topical article, dull in character primarily (8) |
THE (definite article) + MAT (dull) + IC (first letters of [primarily] each of IN and CHARACTER) THE MAT IC |
THEMATIC (relating to a THEME or topic; topical) |
| 19 | Coach first of all drives all over the place (7) |
A (initial letter of [first of] ALL) + an anagram of (all over the place) DRIVES A DVISER* |
ADVISER (teacher; coach) |
| 21 | 4’s visitors make grand MCs (6) |
G (grand) + HOSTS (Masters of Ceremonies [MCs]) G HOSTS |
GHOSTS (visitors to SCROOGE [entry at 4 down]) |
| 22 | Short story about a dry lake (6) |
LIE (story) containing (about) (TT [teetotal; dry] + L [lake]) LI (TT L) E |
LITTLE (short) |
| 24 | It’s run up by girl coming out close to midnight (4) |
DEB (DEButante; girl making her first appearance in society [girl coming out]) + T (last letter of [close to] MIDNIGHT) DEB T |
DEBT (outstanding sum of money that has been run up) |
Great puzzle and blog .
Really enjoyed this after being made to look an idiot(which I am of course) by Sylvanus yesterday
But I was wide awake this morning.Loved the theme
Thanks duncansheill and Radian
The first across clue gave the game away. Dickens was an important contributor to the journal Household Words.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
It wasn’t hard to spot the Dickens theme, though some of it eluded me, including (shamefully) 12A. I couldn’t see 1D at all until I came here, and now it’s obvious. But great fun so thanks Radian and Duncan. Like Copmus, I struggled and eventually gave up with yesterday’s Sylvanus.
Managed yesterday’s OK but never having heard of 26A and it being hardly guessable I failed on that today
Well, it being Tuesday and Radian we expected a literary theme, and thought it must be Dickens (12ac being a broad enough hint) but we struggled at first to find many thematic answers apart from SCROOGE and his GHOSTS, though we later saw JOURNALIST, NOVELIST and INSTALMENT as thematic. But it wasn’t necessary to know the theme to solve the puzzle. Favourite was STREWTH.
Thanks, Radian and Duncan.