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, February 10 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on

ACROSS 1 Hard, round shiny sweets, usually a dark reddish brown (7,5)

8 and 25 Down The Prime Minister of Italy 1922-1943 (6,9) 11 Shrub or plant cultivated for its mauve or blue flowers; the source of a fragrant oil (8) 12 An island off western Italy, former home to Gracie Fields (5) 13 --- tide, either of the two tides that occur at the first or last quarter of the moon phase (4) 14 One of the brightest stars in the constellation of Orion (5) 15 A scientist who studies the earth’s atmosphere, especially for weather forecasting (13) 17 Legally authorised postponements of the fulfilment of obligations (9) 19 See 34 23 Name of 12 Popes, the last of which reigned from 1939-1958 (4) 24 The --- --- of Hamelin, legendary German figure; the subject of a poem by Robert Browning (4,5) 25 Informal term for a spy who has infiltrated an organisation (4) 26 See 35 Down 28 --- steel, a type of steel resistant to corrosion (9) 31 Former Scotland and British & Irish Lions rugby union captain (5,8) 34 and 19 Across The second Mayor of London (5,7) 36 Rock musical first performed off-Broadway in 1967 (4) 37 Viking who became ruler of Normandy in 911 (5) 38 Egg-shaped wind instruments (8) 39 The capital of New York State, on the Hudson River (6) 40 In the British Navy, a corps of soldiers specially trained in amphibious warfare (5,7) DOWN 2 A vitamin of the B complex that occurs in tuna, liver, yeast, etc, also called nicotinic acid (6) 3 Late American business magnate who co-founded Apple Inc (5,4) 4 A movement in a stream of air or water in which the current doubles back on itself, causing a mini whirlwind or whirlpool (4) 5 Edward --- ---, English artist and designer associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement (5-5) 6 John ---, English philosopher; an early empiricist who wrote An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (5) 7 Surpassingly good; excellent (6) 8 European flatfish similar to the turbot (5) 9 A polygon with nine sides (7) 10 Non-technical term for inedible fungi with capped, spore-bearing bodies (10) 16 A Greek lyric poetess of the 6th Century BC (6) 18 In computing, the data fed into a computer from a peripheral device (5) 20 A plant from which the arrow poison curare comes (6) 21 Irish political party founded in 1926 by Éamon de Valera (6,4) 22 A filled appetiser in East and South East Asian cuisine (6,4) 25 See 8 Across 27 A small country in North East Africa, on the Red Sea (7) 29 Archaic word for a stableman, especially at an inn (6) 30 Pontius ---, the man who was the judge at the trial of Jesus and ordered his crucifixion (6) 32 In Greek myths, a ravenous creature with a woman’s head and trunk and a bird’s wings and claws (5) 33 The hard, smooth variety of dentine that makes up a major part of the tusks of elephants and walruses (5)

35 and 26 Across American author and poet whose first autobiography was I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (4,7)