Listener No 4558

[Flocker14]

A theme we've seen before I think and one I must revisit. A record time for me and there'll probably be faster ones. On the easy side - but why not? The weather's good and a relief after that spate of fiendish ones in March/April. Enjoyed it - many thanks to Aedites!

[emcee]

Yes, relatively straightforward again this week. No complaints here as Summer is always a busy time for me.

Thanks, Aedites.

[Hagen]

Yes, another gentle one - that's three in a row. Nice theme which brings back memories of reading from longer ago than I care to think about. Not a doddle though as I got held up on a few clues (partly due to my stupidity, of course).

Goodness knows what next week will bring as the editors' mercy can't last for ever. I shall be on holiday so I have an excuse if it's a carte blanche with coded entries that have to be entered as jumbles!

[Philoctetes]

Yup - fairly straightforward, though I was held up by falling into the one beartrap. I've never actually read the book, though we have it, and I knew all the characters. I do believe that you absorb the contents of books if they are around long enough.

[Cruncher]

A gentle amble although still puzzling over one wordplay. An opportunity to revisit the book. Not sure I realised it was a biting social satire when I was 8 years old

[PhilipW]

Yes, a very pleasant puzzle - thanks Aedites. I also have one resilient down clue which is refusing to be parsed (thankfully the solution is without ambiguity). On the plus side whilst reading the BRB to try to solve it, I did come across a word meaning 'to confine a bird in a handkerchief', which although irrelevant to the puzzle was no little amusing