PUZZLES

Crossword and Sudoku brain-teasers.

ACROSS

1 Artist whose paintings include Lilacs in a Window, The Cup of Tea, The Boating Party and many portraits depicting mothers and their children (7)

5 The call of a chaffinch; a fox-hunter’s scarlet jacket; or, a flower related to sweet William (4) 7 Turnip-like root vegetable typically roasted whole, puréed for soup or sliced into matchsticks with a mandolin for remoulade (8) 13 French author who wrote a number of adventure novels including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After (5)

14 French capital, site of a Villa Windsor, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor from 1953 until their deaths in 1972 and 1986 respectively (5)

15 Paired with silver, pearls or coral in jewellery, an azure- or aqua-coloured mineral of copperrich groundwater seeps; one of the birthstones for December (9)

16 General name for pumpernickel, a baked food often flavoured with honey, black treacle or caraway seeds (3,5)

17 Imperial measure of distance based on the length of an average ploughed furrow, mainly used in horse racing (7)

18 Pastime such as cards, Scrabble or tiddlywinks; a flock of swans kept for pleasure; or, deer, pheasants or other wild animals as food (4)

21 Pattern on tattersall cloth, a chessboard or Battenberg cake; or, an attack on an opponent’s king in chess (5)

22 The brush of a vixen or her male counterpart; or, the spikelet part of grass that can be harmful to dogs (7)

23 Loosely-tied coil of worsted yarn or wool; or, a flock of wild geese or swans flying in a V-shaped formation (5)

28 Former MasterChef: The Professionals judge who took over his father and uncle’s threeMichelin starred restaurant Le Gavroche in 1991 (4) 29 Sweet, slightly spicy variety of New Zealand eating apple; a hybrid of a Lady Hamilton and a Granny Smith (8)

30 Herbie Goes _______; one of the Walt Disney Pictures adventure films about a Volkswagen with a mind of its own (7)

32 Australian state with the Great Barrier Reef stretching some 1,200 miles along its coastline (10)

33 Great spotted, lesser spotted or green in the UK, a bird related to the wryneck heard “drumming” on trees in wooded areas, parks and gardens (10)

37 SS Great _______; Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship launched in 1859 (7)

39 Male performer such as Buster Keaton, Evel Knievel or Jackie Chan (8)

40 Rope or wire bracing a ship’s mast (4)

42 Singer-songwriter who released the solo album Graceland in 1986 (5)

43 The ___ ____ of Threadneedle Street; nickname of the Bank of England (3,4)

44 — Originals; organic food brand founded by the Prince of Wales that later partnered with Waitrose (5)

49 Game on pony back played in a series of chukkas; or, one of the Ralph Lauren Corporation clothing brands (4)

50 Type of African xylophone (7)

51 Name by which the Persian polymath who wrote The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine is known (8)

54 Co-founder of the Confessing Church who wrote the poem First they came ... (9)

55 The flower Syringa said to symbolise the first emotions of love; or, a colour similar to pale violet or lavender (5)

56 Ovens for baking/drying pottery, hops or bricks, or for calcining limestone (5)

57 Belgian Surrealist who painted Golconda, The Mysteries of the Horizon and others featuring bowler hats (8)

58 Burrowing animal with a velvety pelt depicted in drawings by Charlie Mackesy; or, a chilli and chocolate sauce (4)

59 Italian region, capital Florence (7)

DOWN

1 Evergreen conifers, one of which is on the national flag of Lebanon (6)

2 General name for a sometimes revolving belvedere, gazebo, pavilion or miniature thatched cottage for the garden (6,5)

3 Summary/précis of a book or article (8)

4 Head accessory worn by Cara Delevingne to the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank (3,3)

5 Scottish explorer of the Niger; or, the grounds of a large country estate (4)

6 Easy-to-grow plant with edible flowers, often used as a pest-controlling companion to roses and vegetables; or, the Latin name of watercress (10)

8 Mythological Greek peace goddess (6)

9 Largest birds after ostriches (4)

10 _________ game; proposed name for what became known as the Turing Test (9)

11 ______ work; needlecraft sometimes called Jacobean embroidery (6)

12 The Black ________; first in a series of books for children by Walter Farley (8)

19 Second wife of Henry VIII, portrayed by Natalie Dormer in The Tudors (6)

20 Current host of Room 101 (7)

24 Lawn game played with mallets (7)

25 Country with national symbols including the shamrock and Celtic harp (7)

26 De facto capital of the Ivory Coast (7)

27 Birds known as fish hawks (7)

31 Author of the autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (7)

34 Dutch artist whose works include Peasants in a Tavern, An Alchemist, The Painter in His Workshop and A Cobbler (6)

35 Cooking utensils collectively (11)

36 In Arthur Ransome’s book Coot Club, the children’s name for any one of the holidaymakers from the city (10)

38 Director and producer whose film Schindler’s List won seven Oscars (9)

39 Strips of toast for soft-boiled eggs; or, linked with “toy” for collectable military figures in miniature (8)

41 Sponge confections baked in paper or foil cases, often iced (8)

45 The person after whom a discovery, invention or place is named (6)

46 ______ Shoes; novel for children by Noel Streatfeild that was adapted into a film (6)

47 Long-legged pied wading bird used as a symbol of the RSPB (6)

48 Scottish portraitist who was a Principal Painter in Ordinary to George III (6)

52 Indian word for cauliflower; or, the name of the largest desert in Asia (4)

53 Colour mixed with red to create purple, or yellow to create green (4)