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Thanks Chris, that is hilarious 😂

I see the author, Richard Williams Wood, was also a physicist and inventor - what a talented chap.

He was a bit of a card, brendan. He described cleaning out a piece of optical equipment he was working with by pushing his cat through it! Lots of stories about R W Wood.

Definitely Chris. I've just read the foreword by his daughter and the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon - they're universally positive.

In Response to (ChrisE)
See brendan @25 for 4d

Thanks ChrisE

Has Paul been kidnapped? His last prize was a DNF for me but this was extraordinarily straightforward from the great man. A slow but steady solve where everything fell nicely into place in the end. I agree with Brendan that 25a was a 10a but I especially liked 16d which I thought was witty in every sense. I counted 6 clues where the answer was either contained in the wordplay or consisted of first or last letters, making for easy entries around the grid. The only one I can't fully parse is 21a, the answer is clear and I can see a flavour but have no idea where the lychee comes into it!

Surprised so many people hadn't heard of the giant berry referenced in 9a definitely a summer favourite, had my first of the year last week!

Thanks to Brendan, Paul & all who posted. Have a good BH all.

justsolve
Take the "pulp" out of lychee to give a couple of letters.

You used to see the fruit in9 all the time, and they were my favourite of this type, but I haven't seen one in a supermarket for years.

Hi Justsolve,

16d was excellent and my COD - it was just so smooth:-)

21a - the "pulp" is the contents of the word "lychee" so with the "pulp lacking" your left with ??

I've just seen a picture of the fruit in 9a - looks like a bright yellow squid 😜

rogissimo,
Didn't mean to dispute your post of #2 regarding the fruit in 9! Our posts were simultaneously typed, and I hadn't yet read yours. Should of course have said that the fruit was unknown to me.

8a describes me in relation to 17a, foi 21a, loi 17a, cod 8a.