Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

All discussions should take place on this thread. Gentle hints to clues may be given. VERY GENTLE hints to the theme may feature too - but only if asked for! Anything stronger than these hints should go on the other, ANSWERS, thread.

Thankee, kind sirs, malone & tatters.

I have at least 8 clashes

Woodlouse, I too had 8 clashes for a while. There are only seven, but at least one sneaky clue where the answer seems that it must be X when it’s actually Y.

Thank you Banjaluka. Enjoyable but tricky. Suppose it helped that my folks lived near Bognor Regis and my mother in law’s sister was married to one of his critics.

There's a lot more going on on the other site, but (as I have a filled grid) nothing there helps with the theme. The unusual requirement of space = 27 means that there are only 6 letters in the writer's name, and unless there's an Arabic write al something there's only one writer I can identify (with no relation to Bognor Regis, so bugger Bognor). I take it that the hint given by the down letters is to a work by someone else as my man didn't write novels as far as I can see. So a hint (VERY GENTLE as Malone insists, but a hint nevertheless, would be welcome). I had his most famous poem pinned up on the kitchen notice-board when my kids reached their teens. I hope it helped - they seem normal 50+ year olds now.

Looks like you're on the right lines, Cockie. If so, the poem in your kitchen wouldn't have been suitable for your kids when they were younger!

Cockie. The writer doesn’t hail from Bognor Regis, but two adjacent locations will become relevant as you will see.
You are right about the length of the writer’s name. Park the space for the moment and concentrate on getting the name. The rest, hopefully, will follow.

Why are you revealing key info on this site?

Thanks malone and tatters : )