the hard way

ACROSS 1 Import fruit (6) 4 A French wine cartel broken up (6) 9 Tone down a painting emulsion (7) 10 Machine age? (5) 11 Maybe Poe’s a past master of fabulous tales (5) 12 Understatement in T S Eliot play (7) 13 Briefly where a squirrel finds food (2,1,8) 18 Part of a religious faction I get on with (7) 20 Pull in first behind another vehicle (2,3) 22 One sort of wood that’s without flaws (5) 23 Beginning a letter (7) 24 Public Relations in place? That’s the spirit! (6) 25 A new stage setting may include them (6) DOWN 1 Catch ten out with a quick blow (6) 2 Is angry and emits smoke (5) 3 Depreciate each new writer (7) 5 Solicitors hold it to be permissible (5) 6 Novel article and story (7) 7 Religion is embraced by them (6) 8 Bat, net and lines set out for the game (5,6) 14 Type of explosion that blew Ur clean away (7) 15 Ordering a taxi when the weather is bad? (7) 16 Detects men who endanger Western security (6) 17 Doesn’t go in for reducing like posh people (6) 19 Opening for a craftsman (5) 21 Article in the wash causes a stain (5)