Thank you kayakamina. Yes, I had 45A wrong, and I now have an equally unknown (to me) answer. The trouble is, at the age of 13/14, I had to choose between Latin and German, and Chemistry and I can't remember what! In hindsight, I was wrong to choose German and whatever, but the teachers didn't tell me that these subjects would be really useful for completing crosswords!
27D was one of the first answers I got - an excellent clue.
My first thought about the author was blood curdling and batty, but have to rethink the misprints.
I agree that this was harder than this week's Listener.
I will return when the effects of red wine have worn off.