BIG X-WORD

ACROSS

1 Syrup made by boiling down the juice of the bitter cassava root, used in West Indian cooking (9)

6 Bright patch in the chromosphere of the sun, usually near a sunspot (5)

10 Ranunculaceous plant of the genus Delphinium bearing spikes of blue, pink or white flowers (8)

11 Meringue base or shell filled with whipped cream and fruit dessert (7)

12 Mythical golden age in Australian Aboriginal mythology; also called Alcheringa (9)

13 Hieronymus ___ , Dutch painter known for his grotesque and fantastical imagery (5)

15 Rock band whose hits include Hold The Line and Africa (4)

16 & 17 2018 film starring Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon (1,7,2,4)

20 Character played by Jaimie Alexander in the films Thor and Thor: The Dark World (3)

22 Long white linen vestment with sleeves worn by priests during church services (3)

25 Mountain range of west central Greece between Epirus and Thessaly; highest peak, Mount Smólikas (6)

26 Arm of the North Atlantic

whose largest island is

Anglesey (5,3)

29 Plucked stringed instrument with a long neck and pear-shaped body, popular in the 16th and 17th centuries (4)

30 Jawaharlal ___, first prime minister of the republic of India (5)

31 Sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, as in out or boil (9)

34 Malleable silvery-white radioactive metal of the actinide series with the atomic number 90 (7)

35 Maori name for New Zealand, meaning ‘Land of the Long White

Cloud’ (8)

36 Capital city of Ghana, and formerly, the British Gold Coast (5)

37 Aromatic herb traditionally used as an ingredient in a mojito cocktail (9)

DOWN

2 Writer and director of the 2017 film Molly’s

Game (5,6)

3 Rosaceous fruit whose varieties include Discovery and Pacific Rose (5)

4 Department of N France in the Normandy region; capital, Évreux (4)

5 Youngest son of King

Priam of Troy, either by

Laothoe or Hecuba (9)

6 Capital of French Polynesia, on the NW coast of Tahiti (7)

7 Italian or Italian-style ice

cream; literally, ‘frozen’ (6)

8 Flaming torch, especially one carried in a night procession (8)

9 Peter Carl ___ , Russian goldsmith noted for the intricate Easter eggs that he made for European royalty (6)

14 Largest of the four main islands of Japan, regarded as the mainland (7)

15 Second-largest city of Oklahoma, in the NE on the Arkansas River (5)

18 Willie ___, country singer and songwriter who won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop

Vocal Album in 2017 (6)

19 Solid figure with twenty plane faces, typically equilateral triangular ones (11)

21 Strongest part of a sword blade, from the hilt to the middle (5)

23 Entrepreneur played by Steve Sires in the 2010 film The Social

Network (4,5)

24 Mongol ruler of the 13th century who founded the Golden Horde (4,4)

25 Lost daughter of Leontes and Hermione in Shakespeare’s The

Winter’s Tale (7)

27 Absence or loss of the sense of smell, commonly 32 caused by rhinitis (7)

28 Jacques ___, French statesman; prime minister and president (6)

‘I am the daughter of Earth and ___’ Percy Bysshe Shelley ‘The

Cloud’ (5)

33 Reddish spice made from the dried seed covering (aril) of nutmeg (4)