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A great puzzle so close but am missing One letter . Can anyone help with a hint for 27A please?

It's always good to give the clue, then those without a copy can help.

Aged person of great stature French con almost beheaded (4).

The definition is the first five words. There's a six-letter word for a French con, prisoner, with the last letter dropped (almost) and then the first letter revoved (beheaded). The answer is a regular in crosswords!

Is the first sentence of the preamble wrong? Surely it is not the absence of the feature............

Grunger. that sentence worked OK for me - there is a feature completely absent from the puzzle (with the 'we're told' being signficant.)

Hi grunger, look at all entries in the grid and there are no "sounds like".

Malone Ginge

Thanks. I was trying to say that the feature is present rather than absent.

Grunger

I agree with you. The feature (per top row) is present not absent.

... and the 'feature ... we're told' is completely - very cleverly - absent from the puzzle.

Can anyone help with 34d please?

Strong tea of backward old US employer (5)

Thank you

A variety of tea - and reversed/backwards it's an old designation for Boss, sir.