Listener Crossword 4031 - Much Ado About Nothing by Shackleton

[Walterloo]

Hope nobody minds me starting this week's thread. Lengthy preambles aside I've made ok progress with this so far but still a lot to do. Some good clueing and the whole thing looks extremely interesting. Get your paintboxes ready. Good luck everybody.

[Walterloo]

P.S. If anybody is still thinking of subscribing to the Times crossword club to get their Listener fix on a Friday afternoon, I can't recommend it enough.

[cluelessJoe]

Thanks W ... looks interesting but a long way to go. Meanwhile, time to make an early start on the 'what colour' debate - - - -

[Monkmonk]

A most enjoyable puzzle with a complicated preamble that all makes sense in the end. Not as difficult as it first appears.

[bobbycollins]

Thanks for that Monkmonk......

I wasn't even going to attempt it, but this gives me a glimmer of hope.

[AHearer]

Well, the clues were hard but fair (like the Piranha brothers), and I have the artist and the works, but the great outdoors is calling now so reinterpreting the grid and doing the painting will have to wait for a while.

[shelouse]

I have just looked at this for the first time. Constantly rereading preamble and clues but feeling slightly stunned, particularly by a couple of short clues which seem impervious to definition misprints. Feel it is susceptible to effort, so shall persevere. Back later!

[robinruth]

Yes, Shelouse, 'stunned' is the word. In one of those short clues, it has to be the middle word of the three, I think but I've been using Wiki to find misprinted word 2 and word 3 producing word one and have no luck. This is awful for those of us without the word play experience! The outdoors call and I'm not sure we'll persevere this week.

[AHearer]

The short clues really are OK. The first doesn't go beyond generally well-known words. The second involves what, at first sight, seems to be an oxymoron -- I'm sure I've come across it in a crossword before, and it's tempting ti think it was in a 'misprints' form then too.

[kwyjibo]

I was struggling with the 'charade' but having reread the preamble have just twigged it.

[turnerjmw]

I found this pretty tough, but extremely enjoyable nonetheless. Clueing certainly difficult, but nothing unfair. Very well done to Shackleton for his invention.

After solving half a dozen clues I ground to a halt, but bit by bit I crept into double figures, the destinations of the across clues sorted themselves out, and the remainder of the grid slotted in rather more quickly.

That was when the fun really began. Plenty of "pdm"s, and a lovely way to learn about a subject of which I was shamefully ignorant.

[nigel2]

I have the artist and the paintings but cannot fathom the charade from the message in down clues. Any hints on how to make further progress?

[Clamzy]

Well I've finished at my average time on a Sunday, so this must go down as a shade easier than Duck's recent puzzle,
but for a while there I didn't think I could finish at all. What a wonderful penny dropper.
Nigel2 the charade is in a language familiar to you but not quite yours, and is the crux to the whole thing. Hope that helps without giving away too much.

[Walterloo]

Well, I'm 99% there. I've gradually worked my way through it and enjoyed every minute. I know exactly what to colour after having got the charade, but all I have left to do is discern the other 'interpretation of the grid' by correctly placing the two similar across answers and get the forgery's name! Am I correct in thinking the first word of the painting's name is linked with the other first word/part of the two genuine paintings formed by the across misprints? I can't pick this up again for a week after today so any tiny hints would be most appreciated.

[Clamzy]

Walterloo Yes a definite link in the first part of the forgery.

[emcee]

I'm still struggling with the clues - a long, long way to go...

[Speravi]

Is there really a misprint in the definition of the fourth across clue?

[AHearer]

I did enjoy this one, and the multiple levels at which it all worked were a tribute to Shackleton's skills...hands up those who see a 'but' coming. The crossword grid might lend itself to a puzzle about Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely, or others of that ilk, but it seems to me to be quite alien to the artist who is the subject of this puzzle. As a result, I find the final colo(u)red grid rather unsatisfying.

[turnerjmw]

Speravi, yes, I think there is. There is only one word it can really be in, and it becomes adjectival

[turnerjmw]

Yes, Speravi. There's only one obvious candidate word, and it becomes adjectival