Clues by Raich and Grid by Rikki
Enter the prize draw by 31 May.
The background for this puzzle is a Mike Wilson photograph of a pool of water in a forest.
This puzzle by Raich uses a conventional 7x5x6 grid by Rikki, which was part of the World Championship winning entry for 2023. It celebrates the 70th anniversary of a work of fiction, the title of which refers to a character whose name is an anagram of the highlighted cells. Solvers must include this name with their entries. Clues are numbered in alphabetical order of their solutions.
The work in question is one of a series of books and is a prequel to the first book in the series. Its plot explains the origin of an extraordinary piece of furniture and the extraordinary location of a piece of street furniture.
Raich and Rikki have conjured up a charming reminder of these much-loved chronicles. If you can’t see the wood for the trees, then perhaps you’re in the Wood between the Worlds.
Day 6
Head across approximate centre of Tijuana for aromatic oil (7)
You need to take a Latin anatomical word for head and insert the approximate centre of Tijuana (two consecutive letters including the central letter). The result is an unfamiliar word for a pungent aromatic oil used in the treatment of skin disorders. [NI]
Day 8
In place imagine making tea with sailors (5)
A short word for tea followed by an abbreviation for a large body of sailors gives this imaginary location for the book. [NI]
Day 12
Swindles perpetrated – 550 English suffer at first (7)
A short word for perpetrated followed by the Roman numerals for 550, abbreviation for English and the first letter of suffer gives you another word for swindles. [JP]
Day 13
Unexpected quote about a radius or imaginary imaginary circle (7)
Rearrange the letters of quote (unexpected) and include the letter a (about), tack on r for radius and you have a circle that passes through 13 countries. [GS]
Day 19
Darius oddly wearing modern weapon for Norse heroine (6)
Retain the odd letters from Darius. Put these 3 letters inside (wearing) a synonym for pistol and you have the name of a Norse Heroine. [GS]
Day 20
Writing material, linguist half dropped hint (7)
Nice thematic reference! Think of a writing material and follow this with part of linguist (half dropped) to give you the hint. [JP]
Day 24
23’s mother, unfortunately ill, I think, with no writing material.
Unfortunately suggests an anagram, but there are too many letters in ‘ill, I think’, so you first have to remove a word for writing material. The answer is 23’s mother, also the first wife of Adam and namesake of the wife of a fictional TV psychiatrist. [NI]
Day 30
Observers up from South Kentucky acted as model (6)
Nicely worded to confuse. Think of ‘Observers up’ rather than just observers. The answer comes ‘from’ abbreviations for South and Kentucky followed by a word for ‘acted as a model’. [JP]
Day 32
Annette, the rancher, holds confining rope (6)
The most humiliating of clues if solvers fail to see that the solution is right in front of their eyes (indicator – holds). [Days 13,19 and 32 now include four of the six yellow squares, namely the letters DGOR – so good luck with that!] [GS]
I am grateful to the other members of the Hints & Tips team: Garry Stripling (Gin) and Jim Pennington (Philostrate).
Happy solving!
Nick Inglis (etc)