BIG X-WORD
ACROSS
1 Highest peak in the Alps, on the border between France and Italy (4,5)
5 2017 comedy-drama film starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf (4,4)
9 Maid in Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice who married Gratiano (7)
10 Pulitzer Prize-winning 1921 novel by author Booth Tarkington (5,5)
11 1971 Michael Caine film remade with Sylvester Stallone in 2000 (3,6)
12 Plant genus of the legume family (Fabaceae) to which the chickpea belongs (5)
13 Pseudonym of British author Hector Hugh
Munro, born in Burma in 1870 (4)
15 Milton ___, Ugandan statesman; prime minister 1962–6 and president 1966–71 and 1980–5 (5)
17 Deep wok-like Indian frying pan with two handles, used especially for balti dishes (6)
19 Actress who married actor Chris Pratt in 2009 and separated in 2017 (4,5)
21 Czech-born tennis player whose wins include three consecutive US
Opens (4,5)
22 Anatomical name for the
tongue, from Latin (6)
23 Third-largest lake in Africa, forming most of the eastern border of Malawi with Mozambique and Tanzania (5) 27 Character voiced by Hayden Rolence in the 2016 animated film Finding Dory (4)
28 & 29 President of South Africa who succeeded Jacob Zuma in February 2018 (5,9)
33 Capital and largest city of Ethiopia; from Amharic, ‘new flower’ (5,5)
34 Small edible Asian fruit resembling an oval orange; Citrus japonica (7)
35 Kazuo ___, Japanese-born British author of novels including The Remains Of The Day and Never Let Me Go (8)
36 Number appearing above the line in a vulgar fraction (9)
DOWN
1 Channel of the Irish Sea separating Anglesey from the mainland of NW
Wales (5,6)
2 Edible seaweed commonly used in Japanese cookery, especially for wrapping sushi or rice balls (4)
3 Landlocked country of southern Africa formerly called Basutoland (7)
4 In yoga, any of the seven centres of spiritual power in the body; from Sanskrit, ‘wheel’ (6)
5 Department of E central
France in the Rhône-alpes region; capital, Saint Étienne (5)
6 Feature-length directing debut of Steven Spielberg, released in 1971 (4)
7 Czech composer whose works include the opera The Bartered Bride (7,7)
8 Erwin ___, German field marshal in World War Two nicknamed the Desert
Fox (6)
11 Star of the crime drama series Sneaky Pete, co-created by Bryan Cranston (8,6)
14 Name for a bear in children’s stories, originating in the medieval epic Reynard The Fox; Dutch, ‘brown’ (5)
16 Hebrew prophet of the 9th century BC who succeeded Elijah (6)
17 Base SI unit of thermodynamic temperature, equal in magnitude to the degree Celsius (6)
18 Venomous brightly coloured lizard of the south-western
US and Mexico;
Heloderma suspectum (4,7)
20 Second-longest river in
Italy after the Po, flowing south-east from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea (5)
24 Point in the lunar orbit of a spacecraft at which it is furthest from the moon (7)
25 Open cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus that appears to surround the
red giant Aldebaran (6)
26 King Arthur’s nephew and a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend (6) 30 Melanie ___, singer who won the first season of The
X Factor USA in 2011 (5) 31 Third-largest island of
Hawaii, lying between Kauai and Molokai (4)
32 Freshly pressed juice of grapes or other fruit ready for fermentation (4)