BIG MONDAY CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 City of north-west England named European Capital of Culture in 2008 (9) 5 Nocturnal bird, Caprimulgus europaeus, sometimes known as the goatsucker (8) 9 National animal of Scotland, first used in the royal coat of arms by William I in the 12th century (7)
10 Any marine mollusc of the class that includes the octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus (10) 11 Civilian identity of the Marvel superhero Iron Man, created in 1963 (4,5)
12 Scottish sheep (1996-2003) who was the world’s first successfully cloned mammal (5) 13 In Genesis, the first wife of Jacob, who bore him six sons and a daughter (4) 15 Second-largest city of Finland, in the south just west of Helsinki (5)
17 Musical performance direction indicating a very fast tempo (6)
19 Egyptian queen of the 14th century BC; wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten (9) 21 Herbaceous flowering plant of the family Adoxaceae also known as townhall clock and five-faced bishop (9)
22 Thin wispy white cloud formed at high altitudes ranging from 16,500 to 45,000 feet; from Latin, ‘curl’ (6)
23 Ornamental bag-like hairnet worn over the hair at the back of a woman’s head (5) 27 Very thin flexible sheet of metal, especially gold or silver (4)
28 ‘The poetry of ___ is never dead’ (John Keats ‘On the Grasshopper and Cricket’ 1817) (5) 29 Most populous city of North Carolina, named after the wife of Britain’s King George III (9) 33 English author of novels including 1969’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman (4,6)
34 & 26 Down Australian Liberal statesman who
served as Prime Minister from 1975 to 1983 (7,6)
35 See 11 Down
36 Alternative name for the cantaloupe, used
especially in Australia (4,5)
DOWN
1 Actress in the 2020 films Falling and The Roads Not Taken (5,6)
2 Any of the vessels of the circulatory system that convey blood, mostly oxygen-depleted, to the heart (4)
3 Pastinaca sativa, cultivated for its long, tapering edible roots (7)
4 One of the trademark names of polymethyl methacrylate, also marketed as Perspex and Plexiglas (6)
5 Non-SI unit expressing the ratio of two currents or voltages, equal to the natural logarithm of the ratio of the two quantities (5) 6 Largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands in the N Pacific, ceded to the US by Spain in 1898 (4)
7 1938 comedy-drama film starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy (3,3,2,6)
8 US space programme for landing astronauts on the moon, announced in 1961 and concluded in 1972 (6)
11 & 35 Across 1931 Surrealist painting by Salvador Dali featuring seemingly melting clocks (3,11,2,6) 14 Upcoming 2020 horror film starring Emily Mortimer and Robyn Nevin (5)
16 Faint southern constellation in which the south celestial pole is located (6)
17 Of rock and other materials, having minute passages or interstices through which liquid or air can pass (6)
18 Oscar-winning director of the films One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984) (5,6)
20 Type of pile fabric having raised uncut loops of thread on both sides, used especially for towels (5)
24 Basic monetary unit of the former East Germany (1949-90), equal to 100 pfennigs (7) 25 Bernie ___, US financier convicted of running a $65bn Ponzi scheme in 2009 (6)
26 See 34 Across
30 Any evergreen tree or shrub of the genus Ilex, especially the Eurasian I. aquifolium (5) 31 Team sport of ancient Persian origin, played on horseback with long-handled mallets and a wooden ball (4)
32 ‘Brevity is the ___ of wit’ (Shakespeare Hamlet, 1601) (4)