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Could you send it again, please. If your initials are BM it was removed by my spam filter. I’ve now turned it off. Apologies

Well that was a bl***dy hard and couldn't have done without referring to these posts. I cannot pass up the opportunity to note the brilliant subtlety of Sabre in that extra hint referred by #20 and #86 posts.

I'm way behind and haven't even solved any of the 12-letter clues. Tips for 15ac and 3dn might give me a toe-hold for the endgame. 15ac looks like an anagram of the last two words, but I can't find it.

Hello Soleus

You are right about the anagram.

Quinapalus Wordmatcher is a good tool for finding words like this - I had certainly not heard of it

PS 3d is straightforward unless you are younger than most of the Listener demographic. I believe as a particular trade in the City of London it fell into desuetude after 1986

Thanks, Woodlouse. Getting 15 gave me enough to get 3 as well, especially given my advanced age. I shall keep going!

I have as complete a grid as I can - there are a few gaps from the encoding of the long answers - which has generated about 20 or so letter pairs to assemble a description. Is it naive to assume that I have pairings for all the letters I need - or should I assume that the complete description may have other letters that aren't provided by the codings?

So far I have one rather obscure option for the source material, which would give my the thematic changes to the other clues, but can't see how to generate anything useful from the letter pairs I have.

I have solved all the clues: I have found a way of altering the four answers requiring such treatment by replacing a two-letter word within each of them with creatures all of a kind, but I am now stuck.

If I am on the right track, I think I am looking for an example, or examples of metamorphosis and having read post 86, I thought I might be able to find such within the relevant works, but Google has failed to deliver. I am trying not to be too specific, for fear of infringing the rules of this site, but perhaps some kind soul could indicate whether or not it sounds as though I am on the right lines.

Metamorphosis is not relevant but you may be on the right lines otherwise

I didn't expect to get very far with Sabre but find that I have solved all the straightforward clues except 29a and the 4 clues that have to be modified. Can't see any hints as to the fictional creature. Having made such unexpected progress i feel very disappointed that I can't finish it. Any hints gratefully received!