BIG MONDAY CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Large-leafed China tea of the Bohea family with a smoky flavour (7,8)

10 Name by which current-day Zimbabwe was known from 1964 to 1979 (8)

11 First Russian writer awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1933); The Village (1910), Mitya’s Love (1924) etc. (4,5)

12 Ancient Greek or Roman war galley with three banks of oars on each side (7)

13 1988 comedy film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito (5)

15 Alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey with water, often with added spices (4)

16 Round flat unleavened bread of India and the Caribbean, normally cooked on a griddle; from Sanskrit (4)

17 Mutant rat voiced by Tony Shalhoub in the 2014 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (8)

18 Hard metalloid element occurring as a dark brown amorphous powder and black crystals; atomic number 5 (5)

20 State on the Atlantic coast of eastern Brazil; capital, Salvador (5)

22 City of central Nigeria that replaced Lagos as the national capital in 1991 (5)

25 ‘The pen is mightier than the ___’ (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu, 1839) (5)

27 George ___ (c1678–1707), Irish dramatist whose works include The Recruiting Officer (1706) and The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707) (8)

28 Cultural practice, idea etc. transmitted by non-genetic means such as imitation (4)

30 Richard ___ (1674-1761), celebrated Anglo-Welsh dandy known by the nickname Beau (4)

32 ‘As idle as a painted ship/Upon a painted ___’ (Samuel Taylor Coleridge ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (5)

33 BBC Three comedy-drama series (2016-) created by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge (7)

35 1850 opera by Richard Wagner that includes the Bridal Chorus, better known as ‘Here Comes the Bride’ (9)

36 Order of insects that comprises the termites; from Greek, ‘equal wing’ (8)

37 Female star of the 2018 science fiction action film Bumblebee (6,9)

DOWN

2 Dry Spanish sherry darker than fino but lighter than oloroso (11)

3 State of NE India in the central Brahmaputra valley; capital, Dispur (5)

4 Group of three sisters (Deino, Enyo and Pemphredo) who shared one eye and one tooth among them (6)

5 Dull greyish-green colour used for US Army uniforms during WWII (5,4)

6 Small passerine bird of Eurasia and Africa with a grey body and blackand-white head; Parus ater (4,3)

7 Stable uncharged elementary particle with almost no mass (8)

8 White crystalline water-soluble sugar occurring in honey and many fruits (8)

9 Of or relating to the Plantagenet kings of England reigning from 1154 to 1216, descended from Geoffrey, Count of Anjou (7)

14 Hero whose exploits included killing the Old Man of the Sea (6)

15 Lake in central Africa on the border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, mainly fed by the Luapula River (5)

18 Thane of Lochaber and father of Fleance in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606) (6)

19 English author of novels including the Inspector Wexford series published from 1964 to 2013 (4,7)

21 Any low-growing evergreen shrub of the Old World genus Erica, having small bell-shaped pink or purple flowers (5)

23 Mountain range of central Italy in which rivers including the Arno and Tiber have their source (9)

24 Fifth-largest island of the West Indies, off the NE coast of Venezuela (8)

25 Style of popular music of the 1950s drawing on jazz, blues and folk, chiefly played on guitars and improvised instruments (7)

26 Tall New Zealand tree yielding a valuable reddish timber used in furniture-making; Knightia excelsa (8)

29 In fencing, a warning to adopt a defensive stance in readiness for an attack (2,5)

31 Solution of salt in distilled water, typically having the same concentration as body fluids (6)

34 External angle of a wall or building, especially one formed by a cornerstone (5)