Luxor has been compiling for the EV and Inquisitor series since her first lovely EV on Dolly the Sheep (that clone) three years ago, but this, her fifteenth compilation is her first Listener. What a gem!
What a difficult device she chose. We needed to swap back those borrowed letters so that the first clue had to take back an N from the second clue (making ‘arrow’ to ‘narrow’) and yield the E of ‘eland’ giving ‘land’ ‘Narrow tip pursuing first of land in backward reservation’, which we interpreted as SLENDER. The N had come up from ‘interN’ leaving the definition for TOMB.
Of course she immediately earns her place amongst the Listener setters’ oenophile elite, with the TOMB clue, though she was mixing her malt and beer. ‘Malt in beer in mug given briefly to intern’ We had to put an A from the ‘aroma’ of the clue below onto the malt giving Malta = M and put that into a TOB[y], a type of beer mug. Then we find, ‘Measures for axle rods incorporating ore of metal’. That sent its X up, and took a C from the clue below so that PINS around the T (the core of metal) gave PINTS (measures for ale). Cheers, Luxor!
She managed to perform that masterly letter-switching 24 times! For me there was a lot of extrapolating from what were the probable definition words – this was not easy! I was so glad that we had a set of comparatively gentle, normal, down clues that gave us a skeleton grid with most of thse across entries strongly suggested.
Then Joy: letters in that right-hand column (the B.YE.X what else could it be?) suggested BAYEUX TAPESTRY. This very week we saw President Macron and Andy Burnham visiting the tapestry in the British Museum where it is on loan. Luxor’s theme was the swapping of the tapestry for British treasures and SUTTON HOO HOARD neatly filled the other side column. All became clear. Her device of swapping letters thematically echoed the exchanging of treasures and what did those moving letters tell us about the ‘swaps that must be done’? NATIONAL TREASURE EXCHANGE. This was magical. The treasures were there in the grid. We simply had to swap them over.
I shifted those letters and, with some entertaining words appearing (PROO, YANKERS, TOSH, YAMMER, STRAD), Luxor’s mastery was evident right to the end. This was a beautiful first Listener crossword, Luxor. Thank you. We will look forward to the next one.