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It has taken me ages (Saturday to Thursday, little by little, between tennis, football, gardening, etc) to eventually work out the theme. I’m still stuck on one or two clues (11 and 34 across, 29 down), and still haven’t worked out what the thematic items are. Some hints would be appreciated - many thanks.

11:The extra letter goes in the fourth word, to give a word abbreviated by L. It's the even letters of Loewe + L all after H(earing)

34 4 letter word for row around T - the T being an abbreviation of the word formed by adding the extra letter to the third word of the clue

29 The extra letter is added to the first word of the clue to give the definition. It's a famous feature of Egypt minus its first three letters.

All of these clues contribute to the message, therefore don't have letters added to the entry.

As for the thematic items, your best bet is probably to work it out from the answer to 37 and the entry. If I recall there's only one possibility (it's two words).

Hope this helps

Many thanks, Loge. I got 29 down just after posting. I will persevere with the rest!

I believe that there is a substantial gap between submission of a puzzle to the editors and its publication. This would mean that this puzzle was compiled in anticipation of the death of the "writer" and then published after his demise. I find this a bit macabre.

0pt0, one would hope that this was compiled post-mortem and the traditional waiting time waived in this case! Although I have read somewhere that newspapers have obituaries of elderly or infirm famous people prepared in advance...

I decided at an early stage that this puzzle was a bit too tough for me so I don’t know who the “writer” concerned is/was; but if he was known to be not much longer for this world, why wouldn’t a friend and admirer plan a tribute in their own particular way? It seems to me to be in no more dubious taste than newspapers having stockpiles of obituaries for the very much alive. I remember that when the soprano Dame Eva Turner died in June 1990, nearly all of The Guardian’s obituary had been written by Sir Neville Cardus who had died in February 1975; and as recently as last year, the same paper carried 3 operatic obituaries by my friend Alan Blyth. Alan died in 2007.

That was indeed a hard one. I put it aside several times believing that I was defeated, only to have another slight glimmer that inched me forward again. Progress was not helped by several “unforced errors” in the additions and falling for the elephant trap vowel mistake in the top right. But very satisfying once done and certainly an elegant and worthy tribute.

Will37, you're obviously a fellow opera buff! I can understand the logic behind preparing obits in advance, but in the cases you mention there would surely have been a considerable chunk of the singers' lives missing from what was written. Then again, I suppose obituaries focus on singers' careers which usually end well before their lives do. There were some (deservedly) lovely tributes to Christa Ludwig in April, all by people who are still living as far as I know!

I obviously don't know, but my guess is that one of the Listener editors was involved in the setting, which would speed up the process dramatically.

I also suspect that may be the case, gem.

Enjoyed this. Tough but fair. Took me all week but got there in the end.