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barreter - i think you may be on the wrong track re changing words - all you need to change is one diagonal with the A G code

32d BRANK so 44a works OK prior to decoding

SCADS are "armoured" fish.

my original 44a is in Chambers

I have an old Chambers which doesn't have *n**f in it. I have converted one diagonal, the correct one, as it gives the correct book title.

Oh yes it does! As it's not given by the online Chambers Word wizard and a quick Google just throws up a cartoon character, I assumed it wasn't a word, Lazy again!

Forgot to say thanks Sudokulover and Kilgore Trout, my mind is at rest now.

Puzzle is an illusion. Only 10 letters on the diagonal needing changed, if you've researched on the author you've spotted it and decoding becomes encoding. That is if you can call adding (numeric value - 1) of a letter to the key letter 'encoding'. For anyone still unsure of the extra words, 7 to 13, 11 to 30, 12 to 22, 13 to 32, 15 to 42, 16 to 45, 18 to 29, 20 to 40, 22 to 46, 29 to 18, 30 to 16, 32 to 11, 38 to 15, 40 to 20, 42 to 38, 44 to 12, 45 to 7, 46 to 44 (I hope I've got all the moves the right way round).

Correction, only 8 letters on the diagonal need changing. From NE to SW, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12

Mersault, why not just give us your solution to the whole crossword?

I'm sorry - that sounds rude and I know this debate has been done to death before. But please think of the poor old setter when putting massive gratuitous spoilers online. We compile these crosswords out of love, and part of the point of a thematic is to give the solver the joy of working out the theme. I for one am glad forums exist to discuss these puzzles - the more solvers the better! - but when you're just giving stuff away? It makes me feel that the hours I spent putting a puzzle together were wasted. Last week, for example, nearly half the clue answers and the theme were just given out - and only a few hints had actually been requested.

It's a free country, and this is just a puzzle, so I shouldn't get too upset. But please do think of the setter.

(I should add, I'm not Nudd!)

I concur with olivercardo.

(I am not Nudd either.)