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Vlad kicks off the new year with this excellent puzzle.

FOI was 19a followed by 10d and that gave me a foothold.

It's hard to gauge the difficulty level because a lot depends on how quickly you solve the really long clues like 1a,13a - that said, there is some unusual vocab along with some place names (real and fictional) and a person's name.

If you do get stuck there's a long anagram down the bottom in the acrosses and a subtractive one in the downs..

There are a few I haven't fully parsed - 21a, 24a and 16a, but I'm confident in my answers so hopefully I'll have a PDM before too long.

COD - There are a few contenders this week - the "cheeky" 7d and the cleverly crafted 14a, but I've gone for 11a which is just outstanding.

Thanks to Vlad for an excellent puzzle to bring in the new year.

Please feel free to leave a comment and/or ask for some hints if you get stuck. We've had more and more people joining our friendly Prize and Everyman threads in recent weeks so let's keep the trend going.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,
Thanks to Vlad. I find him a difficult setter, but enjoy his puzzles.
I can't assess the difficulty either. Seemed easier than Vlad's norm, but I started extremely slowly. FOI 22, which is an indication (I begin scanning in the upper left). LOI was 11, as the NW corner was slow going. Many praiseworthy clues, I liked 8, 9, 12, 24, 26 and 10, will call 12 COD.

Oops, I'll add the excellent 14 and make it co-COD with 12!

Hi Geeker,

I've just added another two to those I can't fully parse - 17d where I see "for men" but am not sure which word minus the "female" goes round it and 25a where I think "posh" should come before "Nancy" not after it.

Brendan, I agree with your points on 17 and 25. I don't have (or use) Chambers; 17 *might* turn on an unusual sense of "bar". 24: think the pop culture Potter. 21: a US term for "sexy". I can't fully parse 16 either.

16a - I had the wrong girl, I initially thought it was a 4 letter girl's name in the middle but everything makes sense if you have a different 5 letter name.

Morning all,
Fairly tricky I though. Working through the clues in order my FOI was 19a followed by 24a which opened up the bottom half. Then I took a punt at the middle two words of 1a based on the letter count and got lucky. 7d made me laugh.
Was about to say can’t parse 25a either but penny just dropped (posh is a single letter at the end and around is a two letter abbreviation).
Not sure I can parse 21a though and wasn’t sure why ‘in series’ needed in 6d.

Brendan for 17d I may be wrong but I’d thought of a four-letter “bar” in the Oceanic sense where the water becomes less deep, minus the “f” surrounding the “men”.

I needed quite a bit of help to complete this, mind. I always find Vlad heavy going, but there were some delights as well. 24ac “Potter’s equipment” raised a smile.

Happy new year!
I just can't seem to get on Vlad's wavelength the morning. I have literally only managed to do two - 18d and 19a.
I don't want to give up just yet so if someone could give me a couple of pointers where to look next that's be great.
Thanks

Hi Abi,
Happy new year to you.
Brendan already mentioned the long anagram in the lower half. By way of hints, Potter is a contemporary reference, Attic isn’t and is not a common meaning ;-)