BIG MONDAY CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 British composer and trombonist whose works include the operas The Perfect
Fool (1923) and The Wandering Scholar (1924) (6,5)
6 In Greek mythology, a sea nymph who bore the hero Achilles to the Phthian king Peleus (6)
9 Oldest cultivated variety of the coffee bean, supposedly discovered by Ethiopian goatherd Kaldi in the 9th century (7)
10 Small northern constellation whose brightest
star is the white binary Procyon (5,5)
11 Vegetative part of the body (thallus) of a fungus, consisting of thread-like white filaments called hyphae (8)
12 Chemical element 54, named from the Greek
word for ‘strange’ (5)
13 Landlocked S Asian country established as the kingdom of Lan Xang (‘a million elephants’) in 1353 (4)
16 Resort of southern California whose Surfrider Beach became the first World Surfing Reserve in 2010 (6)
19 Technical term for the shoulder blade (7)
21 US playwright whose works include Barefoot in the Park (1963) and The Odd
Couple (1965) (4,5)
22 The world’s highest peak outside the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan (6,3)
23 Ancient horological device whose central
component is a gnomon (7)
24 Korean dish of fermented cabbage and other vegetables flavoured with garlic, chilli, salt etc. (6)
25 Spice Girls song released as a double A-side with Who Do You Think You Are, comprising their fourth consecutive UK No 1 (4)
26 ’All ___ were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe’ (Lewis Carroll ‘Jabberwocky’ (1871) ll. 3-4) (5)
27 In geometry, a closed plane figure having
twenty sides (8)
32 Wooden slat whirled on a cord in Aboriginal religious ceremonies as an instrument, also called a turndun (10)
33 Total quantity or weight of all the living
organisms in a given area (7)
34 Body of water that separates Africa from the
Arabian peninsula (3,3)
35 Corinthian hero of Greek mythology whose feats include slaying the Chimera and taming the winged horse Pegasus (11)
DOWN
1 Largest by area of the Solomon Islands; home to
Honiara, the national capital (11)
2 In Indian cuisine, a dish made with leafy greens
such as spinach (4)
3 Spa town of south-central France noted for its
eponymous volcanic mineral water (5)
4 Actress who played the villain Kalypso in the 2023 superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods (4,3)
5 Ballet movement in which the working leg is extended until only the toes remain in contact with the ground; from French, ‘stretched’ (5)
6 Second of the four albums by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac to top the UK charts, released in 1979 (4)
7 French social scientist considered a founding father of modern sociology, noted for works including 1893’s The Division of Labour in Society (5,8)
8 Plant genus of the family Convolvulaceae to
which the sweet potato belongs (7)
14 Preparation of scented ammonium carbonate used as a restorative, especially in cases of fainting (8,5)
15 François ___, French novelist, dramatist and critic
awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1952 (7)
17 City of E central Germany in which Felix Mendelssohn worked and died, and Richard Wagner was born (7)
18 State capital of Madhya Pradesh in central India,
known as the City of Lakes (6)
19 Class of Hindu religious texts (Sanskrit, ‘that which is remembered’) considered secondary to the shruti; e.g. the Puranas, Mahabharata etc. (6)
20 First wife of Edward Rochester in Charlotte
Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) (6,5)
23 Small leaf-like appendage of a plant typically occurring in pairs at the base of a leafstalk (petiole) (7)
24 Small falcon such as the European Falco tinnunculus, noted for hovering in the air when hunting (7)
28 Caesalpiniaceous Mediterranean tree whose beans are used as a substitute for chocolate; Ceratonia siliqua (5)
29 Eurasian willow tree whose flexible branches (withies) are used in basketry etc; Salix viminalis (5)
30 Basal section of the leg of an arthropod insect,
articulated with the trochanter (4)
31 English city, founded by the Romans as Aquae Sulis, made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 (4)