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Hi Casanova. Though strictly speaking this isn't the thread for 'gentle nudges', I'll try to be as gentle as I can. The fold must be vertical, along the centre of the grid. Then you will have made something analogous to an advent calendar, with little windows....

Thanks, Mersault. Although I have tried folding the crossword in every conceivable way you have given me a definite direction in which to proceed.

Wow, this is amazing. Thanks to meursault and others for nudges on the way.

I think the “two threads” idea has made a promising start, even though we should not hope for perfection, as we were warned when the idea was mooted. There’s an answer on the other thread, snd some unexpected caginess on this one.

Isn’t it strange that we are told to remove the extra words before solving, and yet by the time we get that instruction we have probably solved the clues already? We may or may not have spotted the extra words, of course. I didn’t spot the extra word in 11d, whereas I thought the word “surface” in 31a was an extra word.

I found the puzzle ingenious and educational, as I had never heard of the author or of his whimsical approach to writing a book!

I still haven’t discovered the revealed book and it’s author. Am I right in thinking 1a has a superfluous word; the first word? I have become so frustrated that I have even cut the crossword in two, but that hadn’t helped!

Thanks Rad. Just because it's an 'answers' thread, it does not mean that a full answer needs always to be given if someone says that they want only a hint or a nudge. The idea is not to deliberately annoy people. Of course, the opposite logic cannot so easily be applied on a 'hints' thread.

It's really not a difficult thing to set up, I don't see why someone (not necessarily me) cannot set up an 'answers' thread every week. Then hopefully there will be an end to the conflict.

Hi Casanova, yes the first word of 1A is extra. You should be able to find all the extra words in the grid. But after cutting the words out there is no need to separate the two halves of the grid. Just fold the left half over the right, as if it is a book.

I have tried doing that, but I cannot see anything intelligible. The first hole sits on a blank background and the other words or part-words I see are sanctimonious, squashed,backed and London. I just cannot make anything of it .

If you fold in the obvious way, the book/author will be revealed but you have to concatenate the five pieces into a 21-character string and then split the whole thing at different points.

Thank you Buzzb, but the first of the five pieces corresponds to no printed characters; it is just blank.