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Many thanks alwayspuzzled; 28 and 29 are now resolved and I shall revisit 31 a little later!

I'm all done but for 9a which must be a special clue but it eludes me. I'd be grateful for a nudge.

Like Bunty I found the odd extra words a tad disconcerting.

Thanks in advance,

Vin

Vinsculler, the definition is 'tree beasts'. The answer is an odd-looking word, I'm much more used to the common name for them.

Distinctly underwhelmed with this: the abundance of superfluous words in the special clues is just plain lazy... Also theme much too easy which took away half the fun!

Specsaver I’ve been mulling your comments: yes the theme was easily cracked. I can’t question that you were underwhelmed, and also as you’ve seen from this thread the rubric was difficult to understand - for a bear of little brain.

But I feel I should defend Pabulum against the charge of lazy clueing. Pabulum clearly said that the 25 clues were ‘special’ containing only definition and the contained anagram.

Therefore I would argue that the setter openly created terms of reference that excused those clues from Ximenean orthodoxy.

Just saying!

Thanks to everyone in this post
It was just what I was looking for as I had no idea what “concealed letter of the light “meant

Coco you were not alone in that!

9 Across was my first clue "solved". I wrote in TUANS = Tree beasts with letters included in sunsautes. However, I've since seen that 3Dn must be NERD, and that the crossing letter for 5Dn must be U, from part of the author's real name. This gives me E?AU?. I cant find a suitable word to fit this that means "tree beasts". If the answer isn't TUANS, but that answer makes sense within the parameters of clueing setup by Pabulum, isn't this unfair? Can anyone sort me out?

Turast the spelling of N*RD is unconventional.

Try using a U instead of your E.

Thank you KT17 (and Don). These clues are doubly unfair, then, in my opinion.