CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Add name to outgoing letter as indication of direction (8)

5 Nearly depilate when upside-down like a bat (6)

10 Being unable to smell’s not left Mona Lisa troubled (7)

11 Get one’s own back with miracle worker (7) 12 Wells’ simple soul sleeps with partner at first (5)

13 Stick smoothly when fake gems lose value (5,4)

14 Desperately frightened by mistakes and trap imposed by ten (6-8)

17 Bird found circle engaged in amorous behaviour with dearest (4-6,4)

21 Open cast working to empty my house, perhaps (5-4) 23 Gone a-stray in Italian port (5)

24 Little guide to camera (7) 25 Mutant arachnid revealed with fan fare (7) 26 He samples the first flower (6) 27 Manipulative language used at height of

media reports? (8)

DOWN

1 Fish discovered at south limits of boats (6) 2 Camp follower cultivated legume, it’s said (7)

3 Lifts weights of shoes with pressing concern (5,4)

4 Pointed at professional firm’s fiddles (5,9) 6 Cruel redistribution of money (5) 7 A company is landed with considerable weight of show-off (7) 8 Paramount Benedictine in a scriptural order (8)

9 Understand article means to provoke, but deal decisively with problem (5,3,6) 15 They belong there originally, having _ we hear _ autonomous inheritance (9) 16 Angry piece written about rock drill (5-3) 18 Worried over sun, being abroad (7) 19 Opposed to indiscriminate eating with fine wine (7)

20 Silken request to mother (6)

22 Write to church about money (5)