GENERAL KNOWLEDGE CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Hospital in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire that has a specialist spinal unit (5,10) 8 Christopher, English actor who played Lukewarm in the TV sitcom Porridge (7) 9 ____ mills, term used by William Blake in his poem Jerusalem to describe Britain’s industrial landscape (7) 10 The rock formation Benbulbin is in this Irish county (5) 11 Title of four of ancient Egypt’s pharaohs (9) 12 A momentary or passing view (7) 14 An underground cell or chapel (5) 15 Rafa, Spanish tennis player who won his thirteenth French Open men’s singles title in 2020 (5) 17 Leigh-Anne, English singer/ songwriter and member of girl group Little Mix (7) 19 A botanical tree-garden (9) 22 ____ boom, noise created by the shock wave from an object travelling faster than sound (5) 23 John, pen name of the late British author whose last novel was Agent Running in the Field (2,5) 24 The eighth astrological sign

in the Zodiac (7) 25 English fashion designer who was Team GB’s creative director at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics (6,9)

DOWN

1 English novelist who wrote the historical novels Birdsong and Charlotte Gray (9,6) 2 Currently in progress (7) 3 A leader column in a newspaper (9) 4 An expression meaning ‘disorganised’ or ‘bewildered’ (2,3) 5 A climbing plant of the pea family, often used as fodder (5) 6 Lillie, British actress and socialite who was a mistress of King Edward VII when Prince of Wales (7) 7 1981 war film starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine and Pelé (6,2,7) 9 An illicit establishment where liquor is sold or consumed (7) 13 A tube for transferring and measuring fluids (7) 14 A brief but wide-ranging survey of a subject (5,4) 16 A complete failure or collapse (7) 18 The most important person in an organisation or enterprise (7) 20 ____ Rides, book by William Cobbett about the English countryside, published in the 1820s (5) 21 ____ to one’s ears, anything that one is glad to hear (5)