THE PRIZE CROSSWORD
There’s an amazing £1,500 prize for the first correct solution drawn at random in our general knowledge Prize Crossword. Entries must arrive by Friday, March 6 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, March 22. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
Across
1 A book of the Old Testament, probably written about 250BC (12) 8 A cocktail made from champagne and orange juice (6) 11 Small South American monkey with a long hairy tail, clawed digits and tufts of hair around the head and ears (8) 12 Germaine – – –, Australianborn writer and academic whose works include The Female Eunuch (5) 13 A narrow, thin strip of wood or metal, as used in a Venetian blind (4) 14 Hermann – – –, Germanborn Nobel laureate, author of Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game (5) 15 Italian Romantic composer of the operas La Traviata and Aida (8,5) 17 A person exercising supreme authority, monarch (9) 19 Eric – – –, British darts player who won five world championships in the 1980s (7) 23 The river on which Northampton stands (4) 24 A town in the West Bank near Jerusalem, the birthplace of Jesus, according to the New Testament (9) 25 A percussion instrument consisting of a metal platelike disc struck with a softheaded drumstick (4) 26 Large, broad insects most common in warm regions, the male of which produces a continuous buzzing sound (7) 28 A city in Northern Ukraine, site of a nuclear power station accident in 1986 (9) 31 A loose alliance of political units (13) 34 In the Old Testament, the miraculous food which sustained the Israelites in the wilderness (5) 36 A thin strip of metal, plastic or bone used to stiffen corsets (4) 37 City in North Italy famous for its food industry, particularly its prosciutto (5) 38 Small barrel-shaped cheeses (8) 39 A person, such as a servant, who works hard at wearisome menial tasks (6) 40 Loose garments worn in bed (12)
Down
2 Coco – – –, 20th Century French fashion icon credited with popularising the little black dress (6) 3 A sedimentary rock consisting mainly of calcium carbonate (9) 4 A frame that contains the panes of a window (4) 5 See 8 6 Ancient Roman garments (5) 7 A member of a people of Mongolian origin living on the southern slopes of the Himalayas in Nepal (6) 8 and 5 Wife of Louis XVI executed during the French Revolution in 1793 (5,10) 9 Marine bivalves with shells that close tightly together (7) 10 Physical or mental position from which things are viewed (10) 16 A small nocturnal burrowing rodent of dry regions of Asia and North Africa (6) 18 Australian cockatoo with grey wings and back and a pink body (5) 20 A device used with early firearms to push the charge into the barrel (6) 21 An aircraft capable of hover, vertical flight and horizontal flight in any direction (10) 22 A device that maintains a system at a constant temperature (10) 25 Member of a group of Roman Catholics who planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 (3,6) 27 Mohamed – – – – – –, Egyptian businessman, a former owner of Harrods (2-5) 29 A trial or practice, rehearsal (3,3) 30 An extension to a main building (6) 32 Jacqueline – – – – – –, 20th Century British cellist, subject of the film Hilary And Jackie (2,3) 33 Ringing sound produced by the plucking of a taut string (5) 35 Raymond – – –, 20th Century actor who was known for his roles in the TV dramas Perry Mason and Ironside (4)