THE PRIZE CROSSWORD

WIN £1,500

There’s an amazing £1,500 prize for the first correct solution drawn at random in our general knowledge Prize Crossword. Entries must arrive by Friday, January 7 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, January 23. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.

Across

1 Small dark purple fruit used to flavour crème de cassis (12)

8 Lightweight jacket, often striped or in the colours of a sports club or school (6)

11 Industrial city in West Yorkshire (8)

12 --- and Joan, an ideal elderly married couple living in domestic harmony (5)

13 A blunt weapon, often made of hard rubber (4)

14 C.S. ---, Irish-born novelist best known for his Chronicles Of Narnia (5)

15 18th-Century English novelist and dramatist whose works include Tom Jones (5,8)

17 The immediate descendants of a person (9) 19 A republic in South

America, on the Pacific (7) 23 A flock of quails (4)

24 The --- Tale, 1985 dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood (9)

25 In the Old Testament, the garden in which Adam and Eve were placed at the Creation (4)

26 In Greek mythology, the first woman, who opened a box and released all the ills that beset man (7)

28 Small celestial bodies that move around the sun (9)

31 The --- --- ---, 1939 novel by US writer John Steinbeck (6,2,5) 34 A swift, sudden descent through the air (5)

36 --- Fogarty, Superbike World Champion 1994, 1995, 1998 and 1999 (4)

37 Formal legal documents effecting a transfer of property or creating a legal obligation or contract (5)

38 Busby ---, US dance director famous for his elaborate choreography in film musicals, often using large numbers of showgirls (8)

39 --- V, grandson of Queen Victoria who was king from 1910 to 1936 (6)

40 A written thesis, often based on original research (12)

Down

2 A room or cupboard used as a store for food (6)

3 Small moth-like insect with two pairs of hairy, membranous wings (6,3)

4 To make weary through an excess of something initially pleasurable or sweet (4)

5 Anything that diverts attention from a topic or line of inquiry (3,7)

6 A common viper, typically dark grey with a black zigzag pattern along the back (5)

7 Wisdom and caution in the management of money (6)

8 Danny ---, filmmaker who was the artistic director of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games (5)

9 The traditional idealised rural setting of Greek and Roman bucolic poetry (7)

10 Dwight D. ---, President of the United States 1953-61 (10)

16 Dame --- Rantzen, founder of the charities ChildLine and The Silver Line (6)

18 A city in Southern France; the location of Roman remains including an amphitheatre and the Pont du Gard aqueduct (5)

20 The world or universe considered as an ordered system (6)

21 To send a person back to the country of their birth (10)

22 Food capable of being processed by the body (10)

25 A gift of money made to an institution or community (9)

27 The --- effect, the change in frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the wave source (7)

29 To hurt the feelings or sense of dignity of a person (6)

30 1928 one-movement orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel (6)

32 To move in a furtive or stealthy manner (5)

33 Coarse files with rows of raised teeth (5)

35 Any of several small metal bars set across the fingerboard of a guitar (4)