Firstly, apologies to bloggees and, especially, Harribobs for the late posting of this blog. I thought it was my turn this coming weekend. Wrong! (And I haven’t even solved it yet!)
This was Harribobs first EV, following on from a Listener and a couple of Magpies last year. Here we had a somewhat mysterious preamble which might lead to an interesting endgame:
After the death of A MAN OF LETTERS, his correspondence was edited by his widow and published in a number of volumes. Solvers must highlight all parts of the grid not described by the work’s title; these turn out to be so described after all.
Normal clues this week as well… lucky for me as I’m under pressure. In fact Harribobs was more than generous with his clues. After a quick run through all of them, I had just over half solved, only TANKINI requiring me to refer to Mrs B.
Another 25 minutes saw the grid complete, with SLEYS being the last one solved.
14dn Understatement is exhibited in composition of our subject (7) was obviously the way into the theme. Having completed Salamanca’s Listener last year with its anagrams of litotes, toilets and ‘stole it’, I could see TS ELIOT lurking in LITOTES.
From there, it was straightforward to highlight all the non-TSELIOT letters in the grid to reveal the author’s name in large letters. A bit of googling revealed that Eliot’s widow Valerie (with John Haffenden) did indeed edit a series of six volumes of his letters entitled, unsurprisingly, The Letters of T.S. Eliot.
Thanks for a nicely crafted puzzle, Harribobs. An easy one this week, but I’m not complaining!
Solving time: under an hour
Legend:
Definition in clue
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 1 | SIGMA | Letter, sent originally to American soldier, returned (5) S (Sent, originally) +(AM (American) GI (soldier))< |
|
| 5 | TSARISTS | Perhaps supporters of Nicholas Second in dire straits (8) S (second) in STRAITS* |
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| 11 | ILIA | The bones of a poem, yet without an ending (4) ILIA[D] (poem, endless) |
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| 12 | SET POT | Eccentric poets, having a bit of time, fixed boiler (6, two words) POETS* + T (bit of Time); ‘fixed boiler’ is a noun |
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| 13 | SLEYS | Salome’s illustrator, shaven, has special weaving tools (5) BEARDSLEY (Salome’s illustrator) minus BEARD (i.e. shaven) + S (special); reference to Aubrey Beardsley, 19c illustrator |
|
| 15 | UTILE | Useless, lacking force? On the contrary! (5) FUTILE (useless) – F (force); on the contrary, i.e. useful |
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| 17 | LIONISES | Treats as a celebrity, showing exceptional oiliness (8) OILINESS* |
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| 18 | RAT-A-TAT | Rap artist’s farewell to Thailand (7) RA (artist) + TA-TA (farewell) + T (Thailand) |
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| 21 | ULTION | Lieutenant ousting first nationalist in confederacy gets old-fashioned revenge (6) LT (lieutenant) in place of (ousting) first N (nationalist) in UNION (confederacy) |
|
| 24 | TISSUE | Web sites crashed all around university (6) SITES* about U (university) |
|
| 26 | TANKINI | Beachwear – Kate’s beginning to get coating of bronze in one (7) K (Kate’s beginning) surrounded by TAN (bronze) IN I (one) |
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| 29 | HOT-WIRED | Started stolen car, maybe, and rode with drunk (8) (RODE WITH)* |
|
| 31 | ANTRE | Enchantress keeps secret grotto (5) in enchANTREss; keeps secret = hides |
|
| 32 | LA-LAS | At the end Avril, regrettably, sings an accompaniment (5) L (end of avriL) + ALAS (regrettably) |
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| 33 | ZOOEAL | Nothing ordinary in enthusiasm about crab larvae, say (6) O (nothing) O (ordinary) in ZEAL (enthusiasm) |
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| 34 | ROTI | Filling of hot sandwich (4) [E]ROTI[C] (hot; filling = contents) |
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| 35 | STERNSON | Seabird found aboard ship on end of inner keel (8) TERN (seabird) in SS (ship) + ON |
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| 36 | YATES | Poet read aloud openings from earlier poet’s work (5) sounds like YEATS (poet); ‘yates’ were gates (Spenser) |
|
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 1 | SISTRUM | On Sabbath I play percussion instrument (7) S (Sabbath) + I STRUM (play) |
|
| 2 | GIES | Glaswegian donates martial art costumes (4) 2 meanings |
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| 3 | MAYFAIR | Might just go after this? (7) MAY (might) + FAIR (just); reference Mayfair on a standard UK Monopoly board where it precedes Go |
|
| 4 | ASSET | A Hardy character turns up, bringing something worth having (5) A + TESS< (Thomas Hardy character) |
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| 5 | TESLA | Band got up and left with American inventor (5) SET< (band, got up) + L (left) + A (American) |
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| 6 | APPORT | Unexplained materialisation of relation going topless (6) [R]APPORT (relation, topless) |
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| 7 | ROUND | Take penniless poet for a sandwich (5) R (take) + POUND (poet Ezra) minus P (i.e. penniless) |
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| 8 | SEISMS | Misses out, getting the shakes, unusually (6) MISSES*; unusually = rare word |
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| 9 | TILE-HUNG | Clad in slabs using mixture of thin glue (8) (THIN GLUE)* |
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| 10 | SEES | Stevens regularly looks at letters (4) regular letters in StEvEnS |
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| 14 | LITOTES | Understatement is exhibited in composition of our subject (7) (TS ELIOT (the subject of this puzzle))* |
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| 16 | SALMONET | Fish, medium one, covered in seasoning (8) M (medium) ONE in SALT (seasoning) |
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| 19 | ESKUARA | Pyrenean bird on river protected by Environment Agency (7) SKUA (bird) + R (river) surrounded (protected) by EA (Environment Agency); Eskuara is given in Chambers under Basque |
|
| 20 | MEIOSIS | Understatement is exhibited by setter with cries of joy (7) IS next to ME (setter) IOS (cries of joy) |
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| 22 | TITTLE | Name of book about 5 down, abridged a bit (6) TITLE (name of book) about T (Tesla, 5 down, abridged) |
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| 23 | NARCOS | Drugs agents capture Catholic in place of worship (6) RC (Roman Catholic) in NAOS (place of worship) |
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| 25 | LIE ON | Be incumbent upon Trotsky, say, to get hold of one (5, two words) LEON (Trotsky, for example) holding I (one) |
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| 27 | ADMAN | Chap in marketing, ascendant, would be nothing without money (5) (NADA (nothing) about M (money))< |
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| 28 | NELLY | Dickens character with variable life (5) NELL (Dickens character) + Y (variable) |
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| 29 | HATS | Tail-enders of South Africa cricket teams might be bowlers (4) last letters of SoutH AfricA crickeT teamS |
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| 30 | SLOT | Channel features excaudate tree-dwelling mammal (4) SLOT[H] (tree-dwelling mammal, excaudate, i.e. tailless) |
|
Thanks for the blog. Like you said, pretty straightforward, but enjoyable, and the highlighting bit at the end was fun.
We’ve had a few tricky EVs of late so having a slightly easier one was a relief. Particularly in the blogger’s case by the sounds of it. Well done Dave on completing in under an hour. Crikey.
An enjoyable finish and seeing the final shaded grid raised a smile.
Some generous clues and particularly enjoyed 13A. Clever.
My thanks to setter and blogger