Yes, Hamish, my terminology in the last post was vague - I realised back at post 7 when I only had a few solutions that every light was an element. What I meant about the 26 lights was of course the unusual letter-squeezing.
Golly! - I've often thought of making a late-life career out of setting - that's certainly a further deterrent if one's spark of genius isn't to be recognised ....
It’s a lonely life . I wouldn’t necessarily recommend making a career from it - there are perhaps four or five setters in the uk who do it as their sole income. It’s quite fun for a bit of pocket money though. And of course I get to show all my friends how clever I am ;-)
I did once work out that say 10k people do the Guardian crossword and take on average an hour and would otherwise be paid £10 that’s about £100k that I gave ‘wasted’...!
Nice puzzle; thanks everyone for the hints on how to fill in the solutions. I thought that there might be some ambiguities, but the crossers resolved all that. This is a favourite theme for those of a similar academic persuasion to Soup. Indeed, I set one for my colleagues years ago where the definitions in the clues were complete, but the word plays omitted one of these same elements.
4d An abbreviation for 'concerned with' + 'what you might do with a chair', reversed
14d Abb, for 'sons' + two different words for a head, around 'inaccuracy'
24d A word for 'wages' around a word for a pole