The Times 28362
I have, I believe, all the answers, but I don't understand the wordplay/parsing in 3 of them :-
26Ac :- Weight on novelist demanding in the extreme (8) S???N?S?. Looks like STERNEST (very demanding). But if ST = weight, how does ERNEST = novelist? Surely Ernest can't be a synonym for Hemingway?
22Dn :- The stones make alarming sound, putting last couple off (5) S?R??. I can only think of SCREE (but "a sloping mass of loose weathered rock" is hardly The stones). I get that SCREAM is an alarming sound but, if you take off the last couple (AM), you're left with SCRE not SCREE.
8Dn :- Expose gamble by one forecasting fall of dictator? (3,4) L?Y ?A?E. It looks like LAY BARE (Expose), and gamble = LAY (?), but I don't get the rest.
TIA