A fairly straightforward puzzle by Phi, I found - solving time, 16 mins

* = anagram < = reversed

1 SHOPPING LIST A second meaning for each of the words.

9 O SA K A It = SA (Sex appeal) A crossword staple.

11 STEAM OPEN Liked this. Open as in open golf.

12 DRAW Equality (as in a football match)

13 MISS WOR (L) D

15 EP HEM ERA

16 A (R) N OLD Worked this out from the wordplay. Not heard of the composer but Wikipedia tells me there’s a Samuel Arnold from the late 1700s. R = runs (cricket)

19 FL (OUR) Y ‘Like’ as it’s an adjective.

20 COVE RAGE

21CH (INST R) AP (isnt)* R = right

21 VI (O) L (e) Sensing a musical interest of the setter.

23 ARTHROPOD (port hoard)* ? as ‘crustacean’ is just one example of this class of creatures.

28 C (A N) ON

27 MICROCLIMATE (it commercial)*

DOWN

1 HO A X A = first (letter) of April. X = times (multiplication sign). Very tolerant of the Indy to mention a competing title.

3 POST M ARK (as in Noah’s)

4 IN ESSE cf (f) inesse. All my dicts say it means ‘in existence’ which does not seems quite the same as ‘at heart’ so I hope I’ve not missed something. I verified the answer using ‘reveal’

5 GAME (WAR) DEN

6 IMPERSO NATION (promise)*

7 TU (r) NED

8 G OLD LEAF Refers to the phrase ‘turning over a new leaf’ i.e. reforming for the better

10 ANACHRONISTIC n (new) in (chair action)*

14 IMPRESARIO I (one) in (proms are I)*

17 D WELLING

18 POP PAD UM Nice to be able to work out a new word from the wordplay. It’s an Indian dish.

21 PROPEL cf proper

22 CHAS M

24 E (C) HT the<

The crossword however was a joy, even though I came to grief in the top left corner.

ACROSS

1 SULP-HATE - I didn’t get this one, but Eileen did << …SULP rev plus [’and’] and HATE ‘be repelled’”>>

5 FLOWER - you usually get river = “one that flows” = flower rather than the other way round

9 Omitted on purpose - simple anagram

10 HAR(e)ASS

13 BEN-JO-NS-ON : OK, a Ben is a mountain and NS are Bridge partners, and Ben Jonson is undeniably a dramatist, but I wasn’t sure of the rest until Eileen pointed out JO(b) 

14 TO(HE)LL-WITH IT : Perfect

18 C(LOSE-HARM)ONY : A Cony is an old word for rabbit (also slang for a lady’s front-bottom, incidentally) - “barbershop” is a singing style

21 SA(NAN)GE-LO(af) : Not the most famous Texas city, but clear from the wordplay

24 E.G-O(IS)M : OM = Order of Merit

26 TIDDLY WINKS : Again, perfection.

27 B-OT-SWAN-A : Shakespeare = “the swan of Avon”

DOWN

1 SCREWY - like a screw as well as being quite, quite mad <<kudos is due to conradcork for saving me>>

2 LO(SIN)G

3 HOROSCOPE  - any reference to periscopes in war movies is due to a simple case delirium on the part of this blogger. ”Signs” as in “zodiac”.

4 T-ROUBLEMAKER - groan !

6 LLA-NO : “ON ALL” in reverse - a South American plain

7 WHATS THE POINT : (WHITE HOT PANTS)* - yet again, perfection.

8 Omitted on purpose - it’s hidden in the words of the clue

11 O-NE(LUM-PORT)W-O : Wonderful

15 INN-A-P-PIES

16 ICE SHEET : (EEE THIS C)*

17 DOWN-LOAD

19 MINIM-A

20 STIG-MA : Reference to the children’s book “Stig of the Dump”

22 N.A.S.A-L

We’ve had quite a few bloggers join us over the last few months so I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce them all. On the Guardian side, Diagacht and Manehi share a blogging spot and frequent commenter Ali joined the Indy team, along with NealH and John. Octofem joined the FT team very recently, as did Rishi and our newest recruit Uncle Yap (both of whom represent the Asia Pacific division). Duncanshiell and the 3 person solving team called Hihoba blog the Inquisitor puzzle and, last but not least, we have two new Azed bloggers: Andrew and bridgesong.

We’ve also seen lots of new names in the comments recently, so if you’re feeling brave, why not introduce yourselves to us all?

Neil

Solving time: about 2 hours

This was a nice example of a fairly gentle thematic puzzle. Extra words in clues are a fairly simple way of providing thematic messages, but the idea of using the central letter or pair of letters was a bit of variation from the usual first letter.

I made good progress with solving clues, and fairly soon had a few names of writers emerging - “C DICKENS” probably came first. I was then a bit stuck with about half a dozen clued answers left and the unresolved question of why eight names were linked with nine unclued entries. Looking at the unclued answers, I saw that CARDS, BLEAK, MIRTH and SLEEP all matched book titles with ‘House of ___’ or ‘____ House’, and that M Dobbs, E Wharton were also among the names - I couldn’t remember whether Wharton’s one was Mirth or Sleep. This led on to spotting that two of the nine unclued answers could be POOH CORNER. So the eight books are:

The House of the SPIRITS - I Allende
The House of SLEEP - J Coe
BLEAK House - C Dickens
House of CARDS - M Dobbs
The House on the STRAND - M Du Maurier
The House at POOH CORNER - A A Milne
The Fall of the House of USHER - E A Poe
The House of MIRTH - E Wharton

On then to the bit I sometimes struggle with - finding the phrase in the grid. The enumeration (10,6) made HOUSES easy to guess as the second word, and looking for this in the grid , I first found HOU in YOGHOURT, with SES as you turned west from the O. I then saw PUBLISHING, forming the rest of a house shape, and fairly soon saw the other (slightly different-shaped) house, using the BLIS in BLIST and SHING in SHINGLE. One or two quibbles and questions below.

Nearly forgot the last detail - explaining the title. Something you should always ponder for thematic barred-grid puzzles. In this case, a pun on “Random House”.