Enjoyable puzzle from Quixote, which I found perhaps a tad more difficult that he usually is. Solving time, 21 mins, and pleased to learn two completely new words getting them from the wordplay in both cases.
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 LOCATE Tricky construction here which I solved only near the end. The definition, I think, is just ‘place’. tiger maybe = CAT and you ‘find’ it in LO E ie look East
4 MOBILE MO (doctor) BILE (bodily fluid) Definition: moving
8 BOATMAN O (ring) in BATMAN (servant)
9 DOORMAT (road to m)* m = front (1st letter) of mansion. This was my favourite clue today.
11 MARSHAL PETAIN (has Parliament)* Head of French Government under German occupation following the Fall of France in 1940 – controversial figure who died in prison.
13 TRUE truce less c = leader of country (1st letter)
14 LODESTONE (needs tool)*
17 APENNINES A (Austria ) Pennines (hills)
18 LEFT Double definition
20 GIVE A DOG A BONE I got this only when I’d all but one of the crossing letters. I’m open to correction on this but I think it refers to two separate things – “give a dog a bone” in the song “Knick-knack, paddy-whack” and also to Mother Hubbard who could not find a bone for her dog in the Nursery Rhyme.
23 RIGHT-ON Brighton less its first letter.
24 CHARGER Double definition – old name for a big dish and ‘juice’ refers to power coming from a battery charger, I think.
25 FLAYED ye (you once) in F (loud) LAD (boy)
26 DEARLY D EARLY
DOWN
1 LABS A very cleverly concealed ‘hidden’ answer that I did not see till very late on.
2 CHARMEUSE New word to me – a fabric – that I was pleased to work out from the wordplay. Good misdirection with ‘fabric cleaner’ with the divide between definition and wordplay coming between those two words CHAR (cleaner) ME (your writer) USE (to resort to)
3 TIMBRE hidden
4 MIDDLE-DISTANCE (medals indicated)* less one of its letter As a = ace
5 BLOKEISH (like bosh)*
6 LAMIA New word to me (a monster from Greek mythology) that I got from wordplay I (one) in lama (priest)
7 IN THE LAND OF NOD The quote from the Book of Genesis is “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden”. Got this straight away being familiar with the quote from which the title of Steinbeck’s book and James Dean film ‘East of Eden’ was drawn. Asleep is a pun on ‘Nod’.
10 TANGENTS Clue is ‘Lines of brown on the toilet” (hmmm….) tan (brown) gents (toilet)
12 STRANGER St (holy person) rang (phoned) ER (the Queen)
15 OVEREAGER O (old) e (energy) a (beginning to agitate) in verger (church worker)
16 INFANTRY The wordplay part (in this down clue) has ‘infant’ on ‘ry’ = railway so ‘in danger of being run over by train’
19 FORAGE for (in favour of) age (a long time)
21 VIGIL This was my last answer. Poet Virgil less r = writing maybe. This refers, I think, to the “3 Rs”, reading, writing, and arithmetic
22 PRAY Double definition
Maybe a bit harder than the usual Monday offering, had to think to get some of the answers. “Charmeuse” was a new one for me and I had to resort to Chambers to find it. “Lamia” I did know, having had to search the history of vampire legends a few years ago. “Vigil” was one of the first in for me. 11ac took me a while as I failed to notice there was a letter ‘s’ in “has parliament” and dismissed answers starting “marshal”.
Thanks, nms. Agree with all your parsings, and like you got the two less usual words from the cryptic definitions. GIVE A DOG A BONE was a nice reminder of the old nursery rhymes – my kids all had them read or sung to them when they were little, but in this electronic age, not sure that so many parents are doing the same nowadays. Good puzzle, thanks to the setter.