BIG MONDAY CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Upper surface of an aircraft carrier from which
aircraft take off and land (6,4)
5 See 4 Down
10 1986-7 comic book series by British writer Alan Moore featuring characters including Ozymandias and Doctor Manhattan (8)
11 Small round Russian pancakes typically made from buckwheat flour and yeast, often topped with sour cream, caviar etc. (5)
12 Celia ___, actress who played Miss Babs in Victoria Wood’s spoof soap opera Acorn Antiques (1985-87) (5)
13 ‘The rest to some faint meaning make ___’ (John
Dryden MacFlecknoe (1682)) (8)
14 Entirety of a country’s navy, in the UK commanded since March 2019 by Vice Admiral Jerry Kyd (5)
15 Estado (state) of SE Mexico bordered to the north
by the Gulf of Mexico; capital, Villahermosa (7)
18 Genus of gilled brown-spored mushrooms that includes the common (‘button’) mushroom and the field mushroom (8)
20 Westernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, known
as the ‘Sunshine Isle’ for its balmy climate (5)
22 Kiln for drying hops, typically housed in a brick
building with a conical roof (4)
23 South American palm tree of the genus Euterpe cultivated for its nutritious blackish-purple berries; E. oleracea (4)
24 Largest island of the Philppines, bounded by the
Philippine, Sibuyan and South China seas (5)
27 Largest of the islands of Fiji, on which the
national capital, Suva, is located (4,4)
29 Sir Malcolm __, English conductor and self-styled ‘ambassador of music’ who was chief conductor of the Proms from 1947 to 1967 (7)
31 God of the moon and of wisdom and learning in Egyptian mythology, depicted as a man with the head of an ibis (5)
32 Son of the Mikado in Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1885
comic opera, who courted Yum-Yum (5-3)
34 Medium-hot curry made with spices fried in oil or
ghee to form a paste; from Urdu, ‘to be fried’ (5)
35 Finely powdered tobacco inhaled through the nostrils rather than smoked, often scented with flowers or fruits (5)
36 Juice extracted from the leaves of a red-flowered succulent plant of the family Asphodelaceae, widely used in medicine and cosmetics (4,4)
37 City of southern Russia on the Trans-Siberian railway; setting of the 1876 Jules Verne novel Michael Strogoff (7)
38 Name by which Lesotho was known prior to gaining independence from the United Kingdom on 4 October 1966 (10)
DOWN
1 Jotun (giant) of Norse mythology who was the father of Loki (8)
2 City in Andalusia, southern Spain, noted for its medieval Alhambra (‘the red one’) palace (7) 3 Italian author of plays including Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1970) and The Open Couple (1983); Nobel Prize for
Literature (1997) (5,2)
4 and 5 Across Pseudonym of French acrobat Jean-François Gravelet (1824–97), known for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1859 (7,7)
6 Metric unit of volume formerly (1901-64) defined as that of one kilogram of water at 4°C and standard atmospheric pressure (5)
7 Director of the 2020 historical spy film The
Courier, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (7,5)
8 Form of humorous or whimsical verse lacking coherent meaning, as pioneered by English writer Edward Lear (1812-88) (8)
9 2002 comedy romance film directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Madonna and Adriano Giannini (5,4)
16 1938 murder thriller by English author Graham Greene whose main antagonist is the violent seventeen-year-old Pinkie Brown (8,4)
17 In cricket, any of the three whitewash lines (bowling, return and popping) that regulate the positions of the batsman and bowler (6)
19 Small faint southern constellation created by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in the 1750s; Latin, ‘pump’ (6)
21 Inlet of the Indian Ocean on the southern coast of Mozambique, location of the country’s largest port (6,3)
25 Villain of the 1894 George du Maurier novel Trilby, who hypnotically controlled its titular heroine (8)
26 Private co-educational university founded in northern California in 1885, closely involved with the creation of Silicon Valley (8)
28 Female poisoner in ancient Rome said to have killed Claudius and Brittanicus and to have attempted to kill Nero (7)
29 Japanese massage therapy designed to improve the flow of the body’s vital force (qi) along its natural channels (meridians); literally, ‘finger pressure’ (7)
30 Man-eating monster slain by the titular hero of
the Old English epic poem Beowulf (7)
33 ITV2 sitcom (2013-) set in ancient Rome, starring Tom Rosenthal, Ryan Sampson and Jonathan Pointing (5)