BIG X-WORD

ACROSS

1 Dancing girl in Victor

Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback

Of Notre-dame (9)

6 Largest city of Nebraska, on the Missouri River opposite Council Bluffs (5)

10 Non-technical name for the

calcaneus (4,4)

11 Genus of mushrooms that includes highly poisonous species such as the death cap and destroying angel (7)

12 One of the three Erinyes, or Furies, in Greek mythology; sister of Alecto and Megaera (9)

13 Steve ___, British middledistance runner who won the 800 metres at the 1980 Summer Olympics (5)

15 West End district of London bounded by Oxford Street, Charing Cross Road, Regent Street and

Leicester Square (4)

16 Andrei ___, Soviet physicist and human-rights campaigner awarded the Nobel Peace

Prize in 1975 (8)

17 Port city on the south coast of Ukraine known as ‘the pearl of the Black Sea’ (6)

20 Seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter heth (3)

22 Old Testament nephew of Abraham who escaped the destruction of Sodom (3)

25 1985 fantasy adventure film starring Tom Cruise and

Mia Sara (6)

26 Flat Italian bread made with olive oil and yeast and flavoured with herbs (8)

29 Capital of Latvia, at the mouth of the Western Dvina on the Baltic Sea (4)

30 Small constellation of the southern hemisphere lying between Orion and Columba; the Hare (5)

31 First female chief executive of Hong Kong, appointed in July 2017 (6,3)

34 Small region of NW Italy extending along the Mediterranean coast between Tuscany and the French border (7)

35 Ritual suicide by disembowelment with a sword formerly practised in Japan; also called seppuku (4-4)

36 High-quality black tea made from the tips of young leaves; Chinese, ‘white down’ (5)

37 Nautical calculation of a ship’s position by reference to the log etc. (9)

DOWN

2 Author of novels including The Dead Zone and End Of Watch (7,4)

3 Red or white Spanish table wine with a distinctive vanilla bouquet and flavour, produced in the Ebro river region (5)

4 Legal right to retain possession of another’s property as security for a

debt (4)

5 & 6 Down Greek shipping magnate who founded the Greek national airline, Olympic Airways, in

1957 (9,7)

7 Largest of the four main islands of Japan, between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan (6)

8 2017 comedy film starring Will Ferrell and Amy

Poehler (3,5)

9 Brightest star in the constellation Auriga, and the sixth-brightest in the night sky (7)

14 Emperor of Rome 98–117; adopted heir and successor of Nerva (6)

15 Sandbank in a stretch of water, especially one that becomes visible at low tide (5)

18 Small detachment of troops or police officers given a special duty (6)

19 Shifting of the accent in a

bar to a weak beat (11)

21 Fish genus of the family Clupeidae to which the shad belongs (5)

23 Eleventh month of the French revolutionary calendar, extending from July 20 to August 18; the month of heat (9)

24 Friend of Antonio and suitor of Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice (8)

25 Chief opera house of Italy, in central Milan; opened in 1778 (2,5)

27 Picture made by sticking

small pieces of cloth, paper etc. onto a surface; from French, ‘gluing’ (7)

28 Department in the Nouvelle-aquitaine region of central France; capital,

Guéret (6)

32 Left-hand page of an open book, or the back of a loose document;

Latin, (with the leaf)

‘turned’ (5)

33 Disco and funk group whose hits include ‘I Want Your Love’ and ‘Good Times’ (4)