Julius is today’s 12 across.
I don’t time myself when solving puzzles because I’m writing the blog as I go along, but if I did, I think this would the quickest Julius I have ever solved. My first pass yielded more than half the across answers and all the down ones (due to having so many crossers). The remaining across solutions were straightforward after that. You do need a bit of general knowledge to solve the puzzle, but nothing terribly obscure as long as you’ve heard of John Braine and Bertolt Brecht.
Thanks, Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TROPHY WIFE |
Dutch for show (6,4)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 7 | ECHT |
Authentic German playwright (not British) (4)
|
| (Bertolt) (Br)ECHT (“German playwright”), but not Br. (British) | ||
| 9 | BAKU |
Airline returning its base capital (4)
|
| BA (British Airways, so “airline”) + [returning] <=UK (“base” for BA)
Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan. |
||
| 10 | UNSUITABLE |
Inappropriate insult beau tossed around (10)
|
| *(insult beau) [anag:tossed around] | ||
| 11 | BIN BAG |
Second-class area in Crosby that’s filled with rubbish (3,3)
|
| B (second-class, as in B-road or B-movie) + A (area) in BING (Crosby) | ||
| 12 | COMPILER |
Company fortune carried by Mister Julius in this case (8)
|
| Co. (company) + PILE (“fortune”) carried by Mr. (Mister) | ||
| 13 | AMRITSAR |
Indian city treated star following advanced magnetic scan (8)
|
| *(star) [anag:treated] after A (advanced) + MRI (magnetic resonance imaging, so “magnetic scan”) | ||
| 15 | AUNT |
Gold nugget cleaned out family member (4)
|
| Au (chemical symbol for “gold”) + N(ugge)T [cleaned out] | ||
| 17 | CNUT |
Danish king wounded, pierced by knight (4)
|
| CUT (“wounded”), pierced by N (knight, in chess notation) | ||
| 19 | PANCETTA |
Italian meat pâté can’t spread (8)
|
| *(pate cant) [anag:spread] | ||
| 22 | IMPERIAL |
Article introduced to endanger sovereign (8)
|
| A (“article”) introduced to IMPERIL (“endanger”) | ||
| 23 | ELAPSE |
Pass ultimately grave error of indiscretion (6)
|
| [ultimately] (grav)E + LAPSE (“error of indiscretion”) | ||
| 25 | ADOLESCENT |
A teenage Gal Gadot unboxed the French perfume (10)
|
| (g)ADO(t) [unboxed] + LE (“the” in “French”) + SCENT (“perfune”) | ||
| 26 | TAPE |
Record last appearance of great mimic (4)
|
| [last appearance of] (grea)T + APE (“mimic”) | ||
| 27 | SCAB |
Farmer’s cabbage riddled with fungal blight (4)
|
| Hidden in [riddled with] “farmerS CABbage” | ||
| 28 | ANTHRACITE |
Dark material that Racine exploited (10)
|
| *(that racine) [anag:exploited] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | REALISM |
Kingdom embracing one’s practical approach (7)
|
| REALM (“kingdom”) embracing I’S (one’s) | ||
| 3 | PLUMB |
Sound choice, bravo! (5)
|
| PLUM (“choice”) + B (bravo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 4 | YOUNGEST |
Bad guy set on most junior (8)
|
| *(guy set on) [anag:bad] | ||
| 5 | INSECT REPELLENT |
Product that could be named Buzz Off ? (6,9)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | ENIGMA |
English mother’s ruin upset mother — it’s a mystery (6)
|
| E (English) + <=GIN (“mother’s ruin”, upset) + MA (“mother”) | ||
| 7 | ERADICATE |
Root out, I read, unfortunately caught before tea break (9)
|
| *(i read) [anag:unfortunately] + C (caught, in cricket) + *(tea) [anag:break] | ||
| 8 | HOLBEIN |
Part of Warhol being a painter (7)
|
| Hidden in [part of] “WarHOL BEINg” | ||
| 14 | IN THE CLUB |
As an accredited member with child? (2,3,4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | ANCESTOR |
Vance story exposed forebear (8)
|
| [exposed] (v)ANCE STOR(y) | ||
| 18 | NOMADIC |
Hill climbing, almost freezing, wandering all over the place (7)
|
| <=DAMON (Hill, climbing) + [almost] IC(y)
Damon Hill is a former British F1 driver, who won the F1 World Drivers’ Championship in 1996. |
||
| 20 | TOSSPOT |
Drunkard beats drunkard up (7)
|
| <=(TOPS (“beats”) + SOT (“drunkard”), up) | ||
| 21 | FIESTA |
Duke filled with energy beginning to attend carnival (6)
|
| FIST (“duke”) filled with E (energy) + [beginning to] A(ttend) | ||
| 24 | ATTIC |
Brief cryptic definition of Braine novel? (5)
|
| English novelist John Braine’s most famous novel was “Room at the Top”, i.e. ATTIC, but it was about an ambitious accountant rather than a physical attic. |
I also found this very approachable, with everything solved and parsed. But I did need time to solve a few clues
I ticked HOLBIEN, I have never heard of gin as mother’s ruin but I loved the expression, ANCESTOR was nicely hidden, FIESTA received a tick for not using duke = d, and I also liked PLUMB (so pithy).
I originally entered the capital city of MALE for 9ac (LAM airlines backwards with base e), which slowed me down. BAKU is much more clever. TOSSPOT must be the 100th new English word I have learned for drunkard. And I am not familiar with Braine, so it told me a while and some googling to work out why the answer is ATTIC. Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit remote?
Julius always seems a step up in the enjoyment stakes, and thanks to him for the puzzle. Thanks also loonapick for the blog
Enjoyable contrast to the rigours of yesterday, but I wouldn’t complain if Julius made us work a little harder than this. Agree Holbein was a peach, also liked anthracite. Thanks both.
Never heard of in the club as pregnant. Collins says it’s British slang. Likewise dutch/wife. A few people I’d not heard of, so I was looking a lot of things up. I’ve heard of a pisspot but not a tosspot.
I am aware of Brecht but not of Braine so did need to Google him to solve LOI, ATTIC. As always with GK, you know what you know. I have certainly heard of the work in question but, with no wordplay, I had nothing else to go on . AZTEC and ARTIC both seemed unlikely but I had no reason not to rule out ANTIC. I did wonder whether Braine was going to turn out to have written in Greek which would have justified the solution, albeit in a totally different way.
I agree with the praise for HOLBEIN, I smiled at the no-doubt politically incorrect TROPHY WIFE and also at the double self-references with COMPILER and CNUT. IMPERIAL also earned a tick.
Thanks both
Great movie (esp Simone Signoret), knew RaTT was a book but not by whom, so attic was a bung and shrug. But otherwise, yes, chestnutty and quipticy, ta J and loona.
“Attic” in the Athens sense can also mean in a brief or elegant style, so Julius has given a straight def as well as the cryptic/punny one. Thanks to him and loonapick
Another meticulously and wittily clued puzzle from Julius.
Smiles for TROPHY WIFE, INSECT REPELLENT, IN THE CLUB, ENIGMA and TOSSPOT, admiration for the cleverly hidden HOLBEIN and ANCESTOR, the neat anagram for ANTHRACITE and the ingenious ADOLESCENT.
Charlie @6 has beaten me to it in pointing out the hidden layer in 24dn. Collins: ‘Attic salt, Attic wit: refined, incisive wit’ (in contrast to the laconic style – see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconic_phrase)
Thanks as ever to Julius and to loonapick for a great start to another sunny day.
Needed the blog to explain BIN BAG (failed to see Mr Crosby, sorry Bing); I liked the ‘not British’ ECHT but was not sure if the ‘German’ went with ‘authentic’ or ‘playwright’ (or both? (shudder)); COMPILER was last in and clue of the day IMHO with BAKU a close second. I did wonder if some might find ATTIC a bit niche.
Thanks loonapick for the blog and Julius for another fun lunchtime!
I’m another who hadn’t heard of Braine or his novel, and I didn’t Google it for some reason. So when I guessed ATTIC as my LOI and the puzzle turned green, I was none the wiser. Thanks for the explanation.
The rest of this went down like a glass of good cider–a little tangy, a little sweet, and a lot of fun.
Thanks for the blog , a good example of a fine easier puzzle with clever and neat clues . Along with yesterday it shows the pleasing range of FT crosswords .
ATTIC is brilliant , John Braine part of the Angry Young Men movement , by today’s standards they would just be mildly cross .
Thanks Julius. I’m afraid my enjoyment was limited by my inability to solve BAKU and COMPILER and my failure to parse TROPHY WIFE, BIN BAG, NOMADIC, and ATTIC. I did tick TAPE, ANTHRACITE, and HOLBEIN as favourites. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
A fairly quick and enjoyable solve apart from our only holdup, ATTIC; we knew of John Braine and of Room At The Top but hadn’t realised that the former was the author of the latter and had to check via Google. We liked COMPILER, AMRITSAR and PANCETTA.
Thanks, Julius and loonapick.
This was a jolly solve in front of the (pre-football) golf. Like others, I did a quick search to be sure about ATTIC. I liked IMPERIAL and BIN BAG.
Thanks Julius and loonapick.
I always enjoy a Julius and this was no exception. I can’t believe I’m the only one who didn’t know that Dutch means wife. It’s always embarrassing to have to read through the comments to understand the explanation. Attic was my fave given the double definition. Many thanks to all.
Newbie @14: “Dutch” for “wife” is a crossword staple. I have heard that it is from Cockney rhyming slang, via “the Duchess of Fife”; but I’ve also heard that that’s incorrect, so take this folk etymology from an American who knows nothing for exactly what it’s worth.