BIG MONDAY CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 44th president, and 14th Democratic president, of the United States (6,5) 6 Official name of the western Indian city of Mumbai before 1995 (6)

9 and 33 Across Italian composer (1750-1825) remembered for his probably apocryphal rivalry with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (7,7) 10 Middle period of the Stone Age, occurring between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic (10) 11 Relating to the fifth note or degree of a diatonic scale (8)

12 Bundle of reaped but unthreshed grain stalks bound together, sometimes piled with others to form a stook (5)

13 Robert ___, British Conservative statesman; Prime Minister 1834–5 and 1841–6 (4) 16 Mechanical encryption device patented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius in 1918, used by the German military before and during the Second World War (6)

19 Tenth month of the Islamic calendar, falling between Ramadan and Dhu al-Qidah (7) 21 Capital city of Cambodia, at the confluence of the Mekong, Tonlé Sap and Bassac Rivers (5,4) 22 Surgical hook or forceps used to grasp small body parts such as the ends of arteries; from Latin, ‘to hold’ (9)

23 Land covered with grass or other low plants suitable for grazing livestock (7)

24 1985 comedy film starring Chevy Chase and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (6)

25 Capital of the Alpes-Maritimes department of SE France; chief resort of the Côte d’Azur, or French Riviera (4) 26 Seventh-largest country in the world, and the second most populous after China (5) 27 Strong coffee made by forcing steam or boiling water through finely ground coffee beans (8) 32 Roman general and statesman who had three children with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra between 40 and 36 BC (4,6)

33 See 9

34 Goddess of the hearth in Greek mythology, identified with the Roman Vesta (6)

35 US singer and actress married to actor Ernest Borgnine for four months in 1964 (5,6)

DOWN

1 Dried unripe berries of the flowering vine Piper nigrum, ground as a condiment (5,6) 2 George Herman ___ (1895–1948), US baseball player commonly known by the nickname Babe (4)

3 Performing killer whale who featured in the 2003 film Free Willy (5)

4 Pungent gas composed of nitrogen and hydrogen, used in the production of fertilisers, nitric acid etc. (7)

5 Capital of the Drenthe province of the NE Netherlands, founded in 1257 (5) 6 Largest natural lake in Wales, and the chief source of the River Dee (4)

7 Director of the upcoming period action spy film The King’s Man (7,6)

8 Widow of Nabal who became the third wife of David (1 Samuel 25) (7)

14 Pen name under which US author Daniel Handler wrote the 13 A Series of Unfortunate Events novels (1999-2006) (6,7)

15 Rich frozen dessert made from whipped cream and eggs with sugar, fruit etc; from French (7)

17 Titan in Greek mythology; father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius (7) 18 Region of the earth lying below the crust and above the central core (6)

19 See 30

20 Reduction in volume of the air-fuel mixture in an internal-combustion engine prior to ignition, causing an increase in pressure (11)

23 Of a compound leaf, having a row of leaflets on either side of the central stem; from Latin, ‘feathered’ (7)

24 Frederick ___, English novelist of political thrillers including The Day of the Jackal (1971) and The Fox (2018) (7)

28 Imperial unit of weight equivalent to 14 pounds avoirdupois or 6.35 kg (5) 29 Double-reed woodwind instrument of the medieval and Renaissance period; a forerunner of the oboe (5)

30 and 19 Down English author of the 1877 children’s novel Black Beauty (4,6) 31 Apparatus for steering a ship, especially the wheel or tiller by which the rudder is turned (4)