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ACROSS
8 Benjamin - - -, former British prime minister whose literary works include Vivian Grey and Endymion (8)
9 Sean - - -, Dublin-born dramatist who wrote Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars (6)
10 - - - of the d’Urbervilles, classic 1891 novel by Thomas Hardy (4)
11 - - - and the Maiden, Ariel Dorfman play named after a work by Schubert (5) 12 The - - - of the Mohicans, historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper (4)
13 - - - Pasternak, Nobel Prize-winning author of Doctor Zhivago (5)
14 René - - -, Frenchman who wrote Discourse on the Method (9)
16 - - - Potter, boy wizard created by J K Rowling (5)
17 Mike - - -, British director and playwright famous for Abigail’s Party and Nuts In May (5)
22 William Makepeace - - -, satirical novelist famous for Vanity Fair (9)
24 Joe - - -, playwright who penned Loot and What the Butler Saw (5)
26 - - - the Obscure, final novel by Thomas Hardy that was published in 1895 (4) 27 Mark - - -, American humorist who created the characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (5)
28 The Name of the - - -, Umberto Eco’s whodunnit mystery set in an Italian monastery (4)
29 - - - Sand, pseudonym of the French novelist who wrote Mauprat, Consuelo and La Petite Fadette (6)
30 - - - of a Lesser God, play by Mark Medoff about teachers at a deaf school (8)
DOWN
1 Surname of the Belgian author who created the detective Maigret (below, left) (7) 2 Troilus and - - -, Shakespeare tragedy set during the Trojan War
(8)
3 - - - Cope, witty English poet who wrote Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (5)
4 The - - - of Penzance, comic opera with music by Sullivan and libretto by Gilbert (7)
5 Greek tragedian who wrote Oedipus Rex (9)
6 Norman - - -, US author who based The Naked and the Dead on his military service in the Second World War (6)
7 John - - -, Jacobean playwright known for The White Devil and The Duchess Of Malfi (7)
15 J B - - -, novelist and dramatist known for Angel Pavement and An Inspector Calls (9)
18 Hamlet’s mother who married her late husband’s brother and murderer (8)
19 Geoffrey - - -, author of The Canterbury Tales (7)
20 - - - Inn, novel by Daphne du Maurier (right), set on the moors of Cornwall (7)
21 Bertie - - -, hapless employer of the ingenious valet Jeeves (7)
23 The - - - Orchard, final play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov (6) 25 A Passage to - - -, 1924 novel by E M Forster (5)