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Oops - sorry about the duplicate posts - the Captcha claimed not to be working - and the italicisation was intended to apply to the word 'kippers' alone...too clever by half...

But anyway - back to 4721: with the help of the posse of gentle nudgers already thanked, I've cracked it. I was diverted for far too long by the decoy contiguous sequence of the shorter item that I can't believe wasn't planted very carefully by the devious Shark - just an extra demonstration of the genius involved in this construction - and I was wilfully staring at everything but the b***** obvious when following the advice in post #96!

Do check the novel on this very theme that I mentioned - a little Wiki and Google searching around the theme should find it - I've loved it - and other novels on parallel themes by the same author, since I was introduced to them six decades ago. A great read.
You too, Shark, if you haven't already, of course. Thanks so much for this great creation.

Quick plea for help with parsing on a couple.

11a - Bird in state of being cooked, twice skinned (4). I have the solution, and can see the definition. Can’t figure out the state of being cooked.

25a - Section at the rear of a soft fruit (6). I can get most of the elements together but not quite making it all work.

Quiz, you might take something out of the oven when it’s ****. Make a noun for the state of something that’s like that, and strip the outside letters (twice).

For the fruit, look up soft as a noun. That should give you a synonym for the inside four letters. Section is the final letter

Thanks, Quisling. Got it now. That’s a pretty contrived noun! In Chamber’s though, so fair enough.

Having finally cracked faux pas I'm back to 4721. Finally completed the grid but now stuck. I suspect I'm a long way from finishing this one and my unprecedented 18 month unbeaten run may be coming to an end.

Can't make head nor tail of the 2 unchecked letters in one column instruction. I've been through all possibilities and I can't see how you can change 2 lettes in the same column and get new real words. Can someone let me know if I should be changing 2 letters in one column to get the theme, or whether we have to change a letter that occurs twice in the same column somewhere else in the grid?

Thanks