Skylark completes the quartet in “Ladies’ Month” 
(though there is room for another one this April).
Preamble: Every clue but one contains an extra letter which should be removed before solving. In order, these spell a quotation by the theme about a subject which is a surplus word in the unaffected clue. Solvers should complete the unclued outer edge of the puzzle using the letters in: FEATURED SUPERFAN THEO to make 3 thematic titles and finally highlight the theme’s surname.
With an unclued perimeter, I always find that the clues for answers that start in the top row or left column take a little longer to winkle out owing to the lack of initial letter. Nevertheless, I was making good progress with this one until about 30-40% of the way through I kind of ground to a halt. So, with nothing useful yet emerging from the extra letters, I put the puzzle to one side for half an hour or so and came back to it with fresh eyes.
Finding the long answer across the middle (19a GASTRONOMISTS) helped enormously, and I was soon up and running again. Before too long I discovered that the surplus word was Britain in 23d and could pick out EMBARRASSMENT and BREAKFAST from the extra letters. A quick Google yielded the full quotation Britain: THE LAND OF EMBARRASSMENT AND BREAKFAST by Julian BARNES.
I felt pleased (smug?) that I could then fill in the titles around the perimeter from memory (Flaubert’s Parrot, The Sense of an Ending, Arthur & George), and wondered how A History of the World in 10½ Chapters might have fitted. And I also recalled that although The Sense of an Ending won the Man Booker Prize (2011) it is not as not as good as three of his previous books that were shortlisted, and others that weren’t. (Similarities with Ian McEwan & Amsterdam?)
Thanks Skylark – as it says on Barnes’ Wikipedia page, he “is a keen Francophile”, and indeed “became a Commandeur of L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” in 2004.
| No. | Clue [X] | X | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 8 | Hounds dropping Bar[t]on’s birds (6) | T | EAGLES | BEAGLES (hounds) ¬ B(aron) |
| 9 | Will’s performance is s[h]ort, involving catholic killing knight (6) | H | ACTURE | NATURE (sort) around C(atholic) ¬ (k)N(ight) |
| 10 | Clutching lady’s backside, aggravate spin[e] (6) | E | GYRATE | GRATE (aggravate) around (lad)Y |
| 11 | Watch leader of [l]eft blocking reviewed issue again (6) | L | RE-EMIT | TIMER (watch) arounf E(ft) all< |
| 13 | Theatres [a]bound within the heart of Russia (5) | A | SHOPS | HOP (bound) in (Ru)SS(ia) |
| 15 | Ran over pedestrian carrying pri[n]ce (8) | N | OPERATED | O(ver) PED(estrian) around RATE (price) |
| 16 | Chief hike[d] forgetting mobile (4) | D | ARCH | MARCH (hike) ¬ M(obile) |
| 18 | American parts b[o]ring electronic cell (6) | O | GAMETE | AM(erican) in GET (bring) E(lectronic) |
| 19 | Gourmets Will’s to terrify about monitors [f]altered before seconds (13) | F | GASTRONOMISTS | GAST (terrify, Shakesp) around [MONITORS]* S(econds) |
| 21 | Department unit[e] in court, tired out (6, 2 words) | E | DONE UP | D(epartment) ONE (unit) UP (in court) |
| 25 | Alongside injured [m]are tracking north (4) | M | NEAR | [ARE]* after N(orth) |
| 26 | [B]utter contains posh, regularly fresh, herb (8) | B | PURSLAIN | PLAIN (utter) around U (posh) (f)R(e)S(h) |
| 28 | Jock’s sp[a]ring son’s blows (5) | A | STOTS | STOT (spring, Scot) S(on) |
| 30 | Cha[r]ts including hydrogen iodide crystal (6) | R | RAPHIS | RAPS (chats) around HI (hydrogen iodide) |
| 31 | F[r]ight about old Pole (6) | R | SPARRE | SPAR (fight) RE (about) |
| 32 | Li[a]ne, after eastern cash, grabs most of strange plant (6) | A | FENNEL | L(ine) after FEN (1/100 yuan, China) NE(w) (strange) |
| 33 | American force[s] circle Australian 12-a-side ball game (6) | S | VIGORO | VIGOR (force, N Am) O (circle) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Fool defenders finally without [s]topping basketball shots (6) | S | LAY-UPS | PLAY UP (fool) (defender)S without first letter |
| 2 | [M]ace craving settled (6) | M | AGREED | A(ce) GREED (craving) |
| 3 | French fool’s ecstasy supporting po[e]t (4) | E | BÊTE | E(cstasy) after BET (pot) |
| 4 | Bacon slice’s bee[n] dropped by flashy editor on vacation (6) | N | RASHER | BRASH (flashy) ¬ B(ee) E(dito)R |
| 5 | Touring Portugal and Germany [t]race European relative once (8) | T | STEPDAME | STEAM (race) around P(ortugal) & D (Germany) E(uropean) |
| 6 | Fabrics [a]wing ancient city discontented elites (7) | A | ARMURES | ARM (wing) UR (ancient city) E(lite)S |
| 7 | Control we[n]t on radio (4) | N | REIN | homophone RAIN (wet) |
| 12 | Thugs capture [d]river’s diamond shapers (7) | D | BRUTERS | BRUTES (thugs) around R(iver) |
| 13 | Prevent [B]right interrupting criticism (5) | B | STROP | STOP (prevent) around R(ight) |
| 14 | Winds Lapp records, sh[r]edding letter (7) | R | SAMIELS | SAMI (Lapp) ELPEES (LPs, records) ¬ PEE (letter) |
| 17 | [E]venting, overturn clear ring (8) | E | ERU |
|
| 18 | King entering be[a]ts energetic people (5) | A | GOERS | GOES (bets) around R (king) |
| 20 | Soldier eats last of pin[k] fish (7) | K | SNAPPER | SAPPER (soldier) around (pi)N |
| 22 | Affix top of [f]lag in eastern island’s boat (6) | F | PUTELI | PUT (affix) L(ag) in E(astern) I(sland) |
| 23 | Australian fish confused Roman [Britain] adopting recipe (6) | MARRON | [ROMAN]* around R(ecipe) | |
| 24 | Ste[a]m briefly rises obscuring one mountain range (6) | A | SIERRA | ARRES(t)< (stem) around I (one) |
| 27 | [S]potty teen initially supports ascendant cult (4) | S | DAFT | T(een) after FAD< (cult) |
| 29 | In Wellington experience [t]error introducing piano (4) | T | SPIN | SIN (error) around P(iano) |
A rare Inquisitor I could complete without bothering the internet. Once ‘George’ became guessable, so did Barnes. And I concur with HG’s literary opinions, especially Amsterdam. A very pleasant challenge; thanks to Skylark and HG.
Out of habit I usually try and solve the clues in the order they are listed, top-left to bottom right. HG makes a good observation that this puzzle any other order would have been a better way to proceed, but through sheer luck I saw Flaubert and the Parrot jump out on the top line and could expect to see BARNES follow in the grid somewhere. I had to Google the rest, and to my embarrassment discovered that I had read the other books too but forgotten about them. I have mostly forgotten what Flaubert’s Parrot was about as well, but I could never forget such an intriguing title.
Thanks to all.
Allowing for the greyed out perimeter we were faced with only a very small grid this week, with a mere thirty five clues – answers for this one went in very swiftly and the job was complete with a matter of a few hours. No issues at all this week – it definitely felt like one for the beginners.
HolyGhost : Should the answer at 17D not be ERUPTING (i.e. PURE not CURE reversed) ?
Thanks to Skylark for a very light and entertaining puzzle, to HolyGhost for the blog and to fellow commenters for sharing their thoughts.
A similar pleasant experience here: many thanks to Skylark and HolyGhost. For me the key moment was guessing ARTHUR AND GEORGE in the perimeter, leading to memory of the famous Francophilia and seeing a promising ARNE in the diagonal. FLAUBERT’S PARROT is also on the shelves here (though I think my favourite Barnes is the witty essay collection Letters from London); the Booker winner isn’t but was remembered after a little head-scratching.
I was another backwards solver who noticed the possibility of ARTHUR AND GEORGE which we watched on telly.Had no idea who wrote it so this was a google job that paid off.
I seem to remember him as a critic and I found that he started out not liking EM Forster!!!
after reading passage to India but suddenly seeing it his way when he read Forster’s description of an English breakfast
Very enjoyable. My next novel will be Flaubert’s Parrot sharing a place with Shrodinger’s cat in the Latin Quarter. I’m sure I will be able to include sex, absinthe and laudanum
But enough of that now-good puzzle
Barnes always was a likely thematic candidate from the title alone, and once Flaubert appeared in the top row, there was no doubt about it.
I’m another with ERUPTING at 17dn.
Enjoyed that. Good, rigorous clues, and an interesting theme – though like many I guess I needed Google to complete, blissfully unaware as I was of the works mentioned.
Thanks to all for kind comments and to Holy Ghost for the blog. I agree that Sense of an Ending isn’t Barnes’s best, and also that Amsterdam isn’t McEwan’s best either.
Me-sat-here-at-home and bridgesong were right – ERUPTING ((E)venting PURE< TING ) was the solution for 17d.
Agree that PURE is better than CURE as a synonym for “clear”, and I accept that that is what the setter intended; even so, both ERUPTING and ERUCTING fit with “venting”.
This puzzle took a while to complete despite its small size, but, starting with GASTRONOMISTS, it developed in all directions in a very satisfying way. I got the theme from the quote. (Often a themed quotation is found in the ODQ, but this one was not.) I recognised Flaubert’s Parrot but not the others, which I had to look up.
The instructions were clear, and it was useful to be given the unchecked perimeter letters for confirmation.
Thanks to Skylark for an enjoyable quality puzzle and to HolyGhost for the blog.