“Clues are presented in normal order, but there are nine unclued entries. One is the theme’s creator; the other eight comprise the seven members of a thematic group, with one member covering two entries. Twenty-two clues each contain a single-letter misprint. Read in clue order, the correct letters produce two names; the first eleven (all from across clues) spell out the theme’s central character, thought to be a PSEUDONYM for the eleven-letter second name (all from down clues). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
The theme is Peter SARSTEDT’s ‘Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?‘ (listen to his performance on Top of the Pops in 1969 here). In the lyrics of that song, all of the following appear: Marlene DIETRICH, Zizi JEANMAIRE, Pierre BALMAIN, The ROLLING STONES, Sacha DISTEL, PICASSO, and the AGA KHAN.
The theme’s central character is MARIE CLAIRE, thought to be a pseudonym for SOPHIA LOREN.
I have a confession to make: I dislike that song. Quite a lot.
However, I did not dislike this puzzle.
The challenge was increased somewhat by the presentation of the clues and by the decision not to confine misprints to either definition or subsidiary indication. That said, there were a fair few gimmes to get anyone started – or at least anyone willing to use an anagram solver (ULEMAS, DERAIGN, CHALDEAN, ORIOLES).
Generally speaking, I didn’t find the misprints too difficult to spot, and the grid fill was pretty steady – with, of course, a bit of a deluge when I twigged the theme.
Share your thoughts down below!
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Homophone | “WORD” |
| M | CARS (Rotors) [having BE (to remain) inside] poles |
CABERS |
| A | [Heard] “SOLE” (one) with MATE (merry) special friend (two words) | SOUL MATE |
| JR (Junior) [admitting] OLLIE (boarder’s move) is more agreeable | JOLLIER | |
| Pay the penalty in DO (party) TIME (season) (two words) | DO TIME | |
| R | ELS (Golfer) [receiving] NAME (deputation) for paints | ENAMELS |
| SAMUEL* [upsetting] those who explain the law | ULEMAS | |
| Once justify READING* [poorly] | DERAIGN | |
| I | STEVE (Jobs maybe) [involving] I (one) Scottish farm | STIEVE |
| A LAMA (monk) IN (at home), ready for Gaston (three words) | À LA MAIN | |
| E | More than one stormy French ET (film) AGES (becomes passé) | ÉTAGES |
| C | One who can’t tackle AGE (life) LAST (at the end)? | AGELAST |
| L | Disease of MILD (barmy) EW (partners [in bridge]) | MILDEW |
| A | Increasingly during RISK (board game) I ERR (blunder), [forgetting] R (rule) | RISKIER |
| ANGEL (Messenger) with O (nothing) for Italian signor | ANGELO | |
| I | “INSURE” (Cover) [sand] near to land | INSHORE |
| R | One from ancient Babylonian legion (HAD LANCE}* [broken] | CHALDEAN |
| E | Shrubs from last HEN (girl) [regularly picked] eN mAsSe | HENNAS |
| S | [Endless] CRUDDY (disgustingly boiled) fish! | RUDD |
| Birds [stirring] {ROSE OIL}* | ORIOLES | |
| O | LISTEN (Fellow) hosting < [uplifting] AIR (broadcast) concerning antiseptic treatment | LISTERIAN |
| P | LA TI (Two notes) for self in part of the Baltic | LATI |
| [Short] NO LESS (expression of ironic admiration) for Elizabethan crowns | NOLES | |
| CL (Sri Lanka) with ONUS (responsibility) for spasm | CLONUS | |
| Trees AS (like) {A ML} (small amount of liquid) [first] | AMLAS | |
| H | Staggers and CREELS (tampers with fish), [not] C (caught) | REELS |
| I | [With E (energy) at rock bottom], EMAIL (send message): “corn expired“ | MAILE |
| DECADES (Lots of time) [devouring] NT (books) for symbolists | DECADENTS | |
| A | TIE (Strip) IN (popular) connection | TIE-IN |
| L | Mousy SELES (Monica maybe) [living in] US (America) | USELESS |
| O | S (Son) HERDS (flicks) broken pieces of pottery | SHERDS |
| R | WIN (Secure) CE (church) and be festive | WINCE |
| VOILÀ (There you are!) [Swap O (over) I (current)] and on stage she’s dressed as a man! | VIOLA | |
| MAS (Farm in Marseilles) with AI (excellent) African people | MASAI | |
| E | AGORA (Old marketplace) [overlooking top] white mall in Delhi | GORA |
| N | LO (Look) [after] OS (bore)’s capital | OSLO |
| R | O | L | L | I | N | G | C | A | B | E | R | S |
| U | R | I | A | S | O | U | L | M | A | T | E | A |
| D | I | S | T | E | L | J | O | L | L | I | E | R |
| D | O | T | I | M | E | E | N | A | M | E | L | S |
| U | L | E | M | A | S | A | U | S | A | D | S | T |
| D | E | R | A | I | G | N | S | T | I | E | V | E |
| I | S | I | A | L | A | M | A | I | N | C | U | D |
| E | T | A | G | E | S | A | G | E | L | A | S | T |
| T | W | N | A | V | H | I | M | I | L | D | E | W |
| R | I | S | K | I | E | R | A | N | G | E | L | O |
| I | N | S | H | O | R | E | S | T | O | N | E | S |
| C | C | H | A | L | D | E | A | N | R | T | S | L |
| H | E | N | N | A | S | P | I | C | A | S | S | O |
I have good memories of Gaston’s well-designed, well-clued puzzle from earlier this year whose theme was based on the irrational number pi. This one was very different, mainly because it was one of those rare puzzles where we are not given word-lengths.
I noted, first, that there were only two 8-letter Across entries and two 8-letter Down entries; and the Downs also had just three entries of 9 letters.
I took longer than usual on my first pass through all the clues – a task that yielded only four answers! One of them was CHALDEAN (with a misprint in the clue), which fortunately went straight into the grid. My second pass yielded no answers at all! The three obstacles to progress at this early stage were (of course) having no word-lengths, not knowing where any of the answers went, and not knowing which clues had a misprinted letter.
On returning to the puzzle after a break of a couple of days I diligently tried cold-solving some more clues, looking out for misprints and hoping to be able to rely on the quality of the clues. The gradual revelation, over time, of likely unclued names was baffling – what possible connection could they have with each other? Eventually finding the source was a nice moment – I had never come across it before and had never heard of Sarstedt.
For most of the time that I worked on this puzzle I had VOILA instead of VIOLA as the solution to the fourth clue from the end. Either answer could be seen as valid, in my view. I also had ONSHORE for INSHORE, but that was just an error – I missed the sound-alike in the wordplay.
This was an excellent puzzle. The clues were very good, and they had to be. The misprint device was, I think, the main reason why this puzzle took much longer than usual, rather than the missing word-lengths.
Thanks to Gaston and Mister Sting.
Nice puzzle but for me on the very tricky end of the spectrum. Despite a decent number of grid entries I needed at least 3 sittings to get the Theme and then another couple to sort out the remaining clues.
Thanks Gaston, but I need a break now.
Ps: really not convinced about either the song or the performer’s hairdo, but I suppose times have changed a bit since then!
Brilliant puzzle. Very difficult but fair and was thrilled to complete it. Jeanmaire was the breakthrough for me, only knew her from the song.