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Paul says of this puzzle… “I was quite pleased with it!” .. Adding, “My experience of being ‘pleased’ with a puzzle doesn’t always translate!”

I loved this! Not finished but it’s keeping me entertained. My first post on here although I lurk a lot.

Not a fan of Paul but much to my surprise I loved this one.
FOI 8/24
COD 23d
LOI 6d
Still working on one or two parsing , but excellent prize and all the better for being without the usual schoolboy humour.

Put it down for a few hours hoping to let the sub conscious do the work but no luck. So some help please in case I have a wrong answer somewhere.

10a is the definition first three words?

1a is it a type of wood double meaning?

rocky, yes on both. 1a parses 2,3. 10a parses 4 inside 4.

Just solved 3d using a thesaurus and found a word I'd never heard of but a very clever clue.

Thanks geeker. All done. With hindsight a better puzzle from Paul and more enjoyable than I thought this morning. Didn't really like 20d and 8 24 I would never have got in a million years without Google. But Paul is always a slow burner and I take back everything i said.

COD was 3d even though i didn't know the word.

Certainly know the theme well. But found it quite tricky in places. Was clever though. Can't understand someone complaining about a crossword compiler showing off his cleverness. That's what they're meant to do. Especially the never to be surpassed Araucaria who certainly included plenty of this theme and many brilliant allusions to literature. We are currently working through his book where all are literature based, most are alphabetic and you have to work out the quote in the perimeter before you can fill in! He was a genius.

Thanks Paul for acknowledging 30th November.

As a born and bred local I think I found this a lot easier than some! I'm completely stuck on 2d though, my last to go. Tiniest of gentle hints? Is my heathen nature letting me down?

havermonkey @49
For a very gentle hint, how about John Buchan?