[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
Friday wouldn’t be the same without Phi now, would it? And here he is with his latest end-of-week offering.
I found this a medium-difficulty Phi puzzle and made steady progress through the first three-quarters of it before coming unstuck in the NE quadrant. I had wrongly solved 20, which stopped me from working out 5, which was eminently gettable from its definition alone. I also knew that 9 would be a more recherché word for this bodily function, but I just couldn’t dredge it up from the depths of my memory. In the end, I realised my mistake at 20, then solved 5 and 12, and with the additional letters in place, 9 soon followed.
Looking at the grid, I thought early on that the first row across the top and last row along the bottom were screaming out “Nina!” and the completed grid duly revealed BRYANT AND MAY. We were clearly once again in the ghost theme territory so beloved of Phi. Having decided that the Bryant and May series of detective novels by Christopher Fowler (1953-) were a more likely source of theme words than the matchmaker of the same name, I started digging round on Google.
My far from exhaustive enquiries led me to discover that Esmeralda is a character in The Burning Man; that there’s a detective in the series called Fraternity (DuCaine), a pathologist called Giles (Kershaw), a Unit Chief called (Raymond) Land, a staff cat called Crippen, and doubtless many more names that aficionados of the series will spot lurking in the grid and bring to the attention of the rest of us during the course of today.
This was the first such theme I have spotted in a long time, and it would have gone completely unnoticed, of course, without the conspicuous Nina. And it’ll probably be another year or so until I spot my next one 😉 In any case, my thanks go to Phi for having brought this series to my attention: having read an extract or two on Google Books, my appetite has been whetted to acquire at least one of these novels on my next visit to the local bookshop.
(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | LEASE | Meadow not quite prepared for tenure
LEA (=meadow) + SE<t> (=prepared, ready; “not quite” means last letter dropped) |
| 08 | GLOSSIEST | Most superficial explanation that is lacking depth
GLOSS (=explanation, e.g. of term) + I<d> EST (=that is, in Latin; “lacking depth (=D)” means letter “d” is dropped) |
| 11 | CRIPPEN | Murderer caught? Rush to jail
C (=caught) + RIP (=rush, as verb) + PEN (=jail); the reference is to American Dr Crippen (1862-1910), who famously murdered his wife and buried her in his London cellar |
| 12 | CENTURY | Routine number seen back in church yard indicating great age?
NTUR (RUT (=routine) + N (=number); “seen back” indicates reversal) in [CE (=Church, i.e. of England) + Y (=yard)] |
| 13 | ESMERALDA | See drama in translation about origin of luscious French heroine
L<uscious> (“origin” means first letter only) in *(SEE DRAMA); “in translation” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame |
| 16 | MOTIF | Second section of verse recalled some imagery
MO (=second, as in in a mo) + TIF (FIT=section of verse, division of poem; “recalled” indicates reversal) |
| 18 | INSTANT | Holy man displacing head of fiend from child with immediate effect
ST (=holy man, saint) replaces F<iend> (“head of” means first letter only) in IN-F-ANT (=child) |
| 20 | ALSATIA | Heart of Italy confused with Asia in old part of Europe
*(<i>TAL<y> + ASIA); “heart of” means all but first and last letters are used; “confused” is anagram indicator; Alasatia is the old name for Alsace |
| 21 | GILES | Traditional farmer is pursuing Government about the French
G (=government) + [LE (=the French, i.e. the French for the) in IS]; cf. the title of the 1944 J R R Tolkien novel Farmer Giles of Ham |
| 22 | GO TO WASTE | Oxygen in two-stage reprocessing to be left unused
O (=oxygen) in *(TWO-STAGE) ; “reprocessing” is anagram indicator |
| 24 | PATRIOT | Nationalist at the right time leading disturbance
PAT (=at the right time) + RIOT (=disturbance) |
| 25 | LIGHTEN | Escape, heading off East and North to become happier
<f>LIGHT (=escape; “heading off” means first letter dropped) + E (=East) + N (=North) |
| 27 | DRESS DOWN | Criticise some removal of clothing?
If you dress down, you remove more formal garments, hence “some removal of clothing” |
| 28 | AUGHT | Was teacher ignoring head for anything?
<t>AUGHT (=was teacher); “ignoring head” means first letter dropped |
| Down | ||
| 01 | BLACKENING | Maligning book without qualities absorbing space at printer’s?
B (=book) + [EN (=space at printer’s, i.e. when typesetting) in LACKING (=without qualities)] |
| 02 | RANI | Princess entered quickly having forgotten a name
RAN IN (=entered quickly); “having forgotten a name (=N)” means one letter “n” of the two is dropped |
| 03 | YELPER | Noisy dog’s response picked up around middle of field
<fi>E<ld> (“middle of” means central letter only) in YLPER (REPLY=response; “picked up” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 04 | AGON | Top removed vehicle in struggle
<w>AGON (=vehicle); “top removed” means first letter dropped; an agon was a conflict between two protagonists in Ancient Greece |
| 05 | NONCHALANT | No new song contains a line expressing no concern
NO + N (=new) + {[A + L (=line)] in CHANT (=song)} |
| 06 | TSUNAMIS | Good weather in the morning is following time with lots of water
T (=time) + SUN (=good weather) + AM (=in the morning) + IS |
| 09 | ERUCTATES | Belches out rubbish – rise in sound covers that
TAT (=rubbish) in ERUCES (SECURE=sound; “rise in” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 10 | TRY | Go chasing fashion with no objective
TR<end>Y (=chasing fashion, fashion-conscious); “with no objective (=end)” means letters “end” are dropped; a “go” is a try, an attempt |
| 14 | MISTLETOE | Obscure sheltered area about to provide plant with berries
MIST (=obscure, as verb) + [TO in LEE (=sheltered area)] |
| 15 | LITIGATION | Line on extenuating circumstances initially dismissed legal action
L (=line) + <m>ITIGATION (=extenuating circumstances; “initially dismissed” means first letter dropped) |
| 17 | FRATERNITY | Bird with sex appeal involved in disturbance in college association
[TERN (=bird) + IT (=sex appeal)] in FRAY (=disturbance) |
| 19 | ABSCISSA | x-coordinate? Basics reviewed on it
*(BASICS) + SA (=it, i.e. sex appeal); abscissa is the x-coordinate in analytical geometry |
| 23 | WIGWAM | Judge going to Western American accommodation on reservation
WIG (=judge, in slang) + W (=Western) + AM (=American); the “reservation” of the definition refers to land set aside for a Native American tribe |
| 24 | PAD | Accommodation settled – one has to move out
PA<i>D (=settled, of bill); “one (=I) has to move out” means letter “i” is dropped |
| 25 | LAND | Secure // light
Double definition: to secure, land e.g. a job AND to light, land e.g. on a branch |
| 26 | TOGA | Old clothing article snatched up
A (=article) + GOT (=snatched); “up” indicates (here full) vertical reversal |
Thanks RatkojaRiku and thanks to Phi too. Great to know that he is a fan of these eccentric and highly eclectic novels. Each is imbued with an aspect of London life and history (such as the underground rivers) while the ancient detectives work their way towards the solution of the problem, as part of the Peculiar Crimes Unit.
Recommended.
Christopher Fowler also writes the fascinating Invisible Ink column in the IoS.
Wonder of wonders, I spotted the nina too, being stuck on 1D Blackening and 7A Lease to finish. I had never heard of the novels, but knew of the match brand, so wrote in a B for the first letter of 1D, and then everything became clear. New word to me today, 4D Agon. Thanks for the help, Phi, and thanks for explaining 16A Motif, RatkojaRiku, because that sense of “fit” was new to me too. (I’ll probably forget it before lunch.)
My FOI was a confident (t)RUCK at 4d. A long time to unpick that …
Spotted the nina, which helped with the down clues in the bottom half, but it’s some time since I read any of the books and the only name I could remember was Crippen, so I needed the blog to refresh my memory.
Re MOTIF, the only use of ‘fit’ I’ve ever come across as a section of verse is in The Hunting of the Snark and I always thought it was just an extra bit of nonsense on the part of Lewis Carroll. We live and learn.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku
I found this hard, so thanks to both. I also think that ‘link’ works for 25d (that’s what I had – – ).
“Fit” as a section of verse is, I discover from the OED, “Obs. exc. arch.” Why does the online OED use abbreviations? It’s not as if they have to save paper. Anyway, the quotations go back to 888, Aelred, and include Chaucer and Byron, so “Fit” is definitely well-defined, although a bit long in the tooth.
I took 27A “dress down” to mean removal by a woman (usually) of her dress by taking it down, ie removing it.
Spotted the Nina half way through, thought it may be an anniversary of the founding of a match company, so no help.
Entertaining puzzle, thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
Sometimes you set out to put in a Nina (Fowler has said that The Burning Man is the last of the B&M novels, so it seemed a timely moment; admittedly he said the same after the sixth book, and there’s a volume of short stories later this year) and you include everything (I tried hard to get BANBURY in as well but he morphed into CENTURY) and then someone comes along and points out a thematic reference you hadn’t spotted yourself. I think ESMERALDA may be my longest such accidental inclusion for some time…
Do read the books – stylishly written, often very funny, and each in homage to the Golden Age of Sayers and Chesterton and the like (but with neat modern twists – the pivotal clue of the Burning Man was simply non-existent in the 30s).
Like Geebs I confidently entered Ruck at 4dn and this didn’t help. This seemed to be hard and it was only when I gave it my undivided attention instead of trying to do it while watching the cricket that I finished it.
This is way beyond the thread’s life-span but I know that our blogger will get an email.
Thank you RatkojaRiku for the blog and to Phi.
Thank you both for bringing Christopher Fowler to my attention. As an avid reader I am always on the lookout for authors I haven’t met before.
I saw Bryant and May and looked for references to matches in the puzzles. Obviously, I didn’t know about the books.
I am also a compulsive book-buyer so the first 3 Bryant and May books should soon be winging their way to me for the princely sum of £2.90.