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As usual, I disagree with most of the posts on here. But I’m comforted by Twain’s words: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform”. Word searches are a skill like any other. But these really aren’t hard. None were backwards or diagonal, or jumbled. They were in straight lines and contiguous. The obvious orientations were just 24 rows or columns. So 8 thematic items in 24 lines, as a best guess. It’s really not so much to look at. One of the most famous Victorian novel heroines, one of the world’s highest paid actors, an actor whose Christian name was given, with an Oscar winner, and a clear pointer to mythology. Yet again, posters on here are blaming the setter for their own shortcomings in knowledge or ability. It’s a familiar and depressing refrain. If you don’t like it, go and do the Sun Quick Crossword. Don’t try and drag it down to your level. I thought the hints in the preamble were perfectly generous, and I commend Lionheart on a terrific puzzle.

Plus the extra letters narrowed down the search. Not difficult at all to find the thematic names.

Agree with above posts...very fair and fun Lionheart.

Barred puzzle wordsearches are not always easy. They're fine if you know what you're looking for, and the words are placed conventionally (horizontal, vertical, diagonal). But there have been puzzles where we're told something like "highlight a possible outcome of the theme" where the connection isn't at all obvious, and the hidden item meanders around the grid in an unusual shape. And in one case the item wasn't in the grid at all (remember the hare?).

I certainly wouldn't blame the setter for my own shortcomings, but if it takes an hour to solve the clues, extract any messages and twig the theme, and then a further five hours to find an item to highlight, I'm not going to enjoy the puzzle. Others may, and that's their right.

In this case, Lionheart was generous in telling us what to look for and the names were included in the grid in a straightforward manner. That made for a neat endgame and a fun puzzle.

I occasionally referee kids’ grass roots football matches with parents on the sidelines offering lots of helpful tips on how to referee and I’m tempted to say “you don’t like it, come and have a try yourself”. I’m tempted to say the same here. Nothing but respect and admiration for all these setters for the inspiration to think of the idea, the ingenuity of the clueing and the conciseness of the preambles. It’s invariably a work of genius!

Good evening, all. A lovely puzzle and great fun. My wife and I settled down to the word search together and finished it pretty quickly. She has no interest in wrestling with the clues but often enjoys the endgame. A big thank you to Lionheart!

Occasionally someone on this forum will make an oblique reference to "the hare". Please can someone enlighten me as to what this refers to? I'm often puzzled by this so thought I would ask.

Hi Kitsune,

The reference is to The Listener Crossword No. 4422, which appeared on 29 October 2016. The puzzle was called "Buried Treasure", and was set by Poat.

The theme of the puzzle was the book Masquerade by Kit Williams, which involved the hunt for a buried golden hare. At the end of the puzzle, solvers were asked to highlight the word HARE in a straight line. However, although the letters appeared several times in the grid, they were never in a straight line. It turned out that the word HARE appeared in a straight line in the preamble, not the grid.

Many solvers thought that this was rather unfair, as those submitting entries are advised not to submit the preamble, just the grid and the name, address and contact details. So, when commentators on the forum refer to "the hare", they are suggesting unfair conduct on the part of the setter.

By the way, there were only 104 correct entries for the puzzle "Buried Treasure", the lowest number since the 32 correct entries for The Listener Crossword No. 3758 "Asylag", by Elgin, which appeared on 24 January 2004.

Really late to it this week but all done now and have to say that that's a pretty impressive set of clues to include the 21 thematic words in a such a relatively unobtrusive and non-obvious way.

Thanks Lionheart - great effort