General knowledge 854

(answers in next week’s paper)

ACROSS

1 The second of Noah’s three sons (7)

4, 11 and 18. Influential novel by Alan Paton, set in his native South Africa (3,3,7,7) 7 A Royalist in the English Civil War (8)

8 Unfinished opera by Alban Berg based on Wedekind’s play Pandora’s Box (4)

9 Tailless New Zealand bird (4) 11 See 4 Across 12 1880 novel by Emile Zola, filmed by Jean Renoir in 1926 (4) 14 A female antelope, rabbit, hare, etc. (3) 15 Plants with fleshy stems armed with prickles (5) 16 Cotton fabric used for gloves and stockings (5) 19 Type of lively dance (3) 21 The third largest lake in Italy, in Lombardy (4) 22 Study of plants, animals, or of peoples, in relation to environment (7) 23 Somerset Maugham story featuring the character Sadie Thompson (4) 25 A narrow mountain valley (4) 26 Stage name of Asa Yoelson, star of The Jazz Singer, etc. (2,6)

27 Capital of Poland, on the Vistula (6) 28 British battleship, the flagship of Nelson at Trafalgar (7)

DOWN

1 Peninsula shared by Denmark and Germany (7)

2 The wife of Priam and mother of Hector, in the Iliad (6) 3 Nation in the South Pacific, formerly called Ellice Islands (6) 4 Fire-spouting monster with lion’s head, serpent’s tail and goat’s body (7)

5 City which was the military capital of Roman Britain, Latin name Eboracum (4) 6 A stoat’s white, winter coat (6) 10 Deep blue dye obtained from a plant of the same name (6) 13 Large Indian antelope, the male of which is bluish-grey (6) 17 Another name for trismus or tetanus (7) 18 See 4 Across 19 Town on the river Tyne from which a hunger march began in 1936 (6) 20 Plant or shrub artificially dwarfed, for ornament (6) 21 Name given to a young swan (6)

24 The county town of County Kildare (4)