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oops double n!

Yes, I’m happy with the thematics. As so often, it’s taken me into an interesting bit of history!

Thanks for the help everybody! All done. Very interesting story. Reminds me of Barbara Comyns' Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead.

Thanks to Serpent for the challenge and the window on a fascinating bit of history; and thanks to Thom for the literary recommendation. It’s now in my Kindle app.

I made very hard work of this. The extra down letters give me (I think) an appellation (first four) and a location (from 19 down). I can't make any sense of the intermediate letters.

A frustrating afternoon!

Bobby, I think your appellation will be correct and the surname is an odd-looking one. I'd never heard of ... the theme at all, but Google helped. Do you need a bigger nudge?

Good Morning, Malone. Yes please 😒👍

Thanks, Bobby. Have another look at the rows with the oddly entered answers. Each one of those has an anagram of a particular 'activity', and also an anagram of a synonym for ... lunacy, say. The versions (of the activity) at 1 A , 33 Aand 41 A were my way in, I confirmed some others later.

If you've got the activity, there's a really useful word to be seen right across the grid. I needed Google/Wiki to find the 'reason' - that came only after I'd finished the name from the Down letters.

Thanks!

I'm fresh out of the shower and shall follow your advice posthaste!

I have cleared my backlog of recent puzzles and intend printing some more old Speccie puzzles later. I shall send you a selection.

Thanks again 😊

Thanks, Bobby - I hope it helps!