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9a think military parade ground for that 5 letter word

Gotcha!

Ah thanks! Had the wrong answer!

There's an award in this novelist's name. I didn't even get shortlisted for it.

Thanks to all for hints on the 14s. Came back from a jaunt round Teignmouth food fayre and once I'd got those it was reasonably straightforward. Some clues I'm not sure of the parsing 100% such as 11a, 7d and 21a.

But quite enjoyable. FOI 15d. LOI like many 22d.

COD 14a I think

Back to the original post, 22D was the LOI and the clue for which the novelist was unknown. Apologies for typo. Clues 6, 7, 22d and the 14s took up most of the solving time.

This seemed to me to be very much more straightforward than the usual Prize crossword. Maybe I just get on Crucible's wavelength better than Paul's, but I seldom finish the Prize in a single sitting, and I did with this one. There were a couple of very UK-oriented clues (not a problem for an exile), but everything else seemed to fall into place rather easily. Some cleverly constructed, but accessible, clues. All in all, a fun puzzle.

chrise@2: I didn't fully understand 14a when starting the thread, also didn't see the point of "character in arena". But reviewing the grid today, the clue is a triple definition: first and third definitions cryptic, second one an inclusion. Unusual, technically superfluous but rather witty IMO.

Thanks geeker. "Greek character" would have made it fairer.
I prefer clues to be as short as possible, so I'm not a fan of this one.

Would that be TRASK? If so cannot find a writer with that name.