THE PRIZE CROSSWORD

WIN £1,500

There’s an amazing £1,500 prize for the first correct solution drawn at random in our general knowledge Prize Crossword. Entries must arrive by Friday, December 15 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, December 31. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.

Across

1 Simple dessert made from milk thickened with tapioca or semolina (5,7)

8 One-act tragedy by

Oscar Wilde based on the biblical story of the step-daughter of Herod Antipas (6)

11 Pincer-like instrument for handling small objects and plucking out hairs (8)

12 John Philip ---, US conductor and composer of military marches, such as The Stars And Stripes Forever (5)

13 An ancient plucked

stringed instrument (4)

14 A medium-sized, smoothhaired breed of dog with a short nose (5)

15 British athlete who was the decathlon champion at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games (5,8)

17 Periodical paperback

publications (9)

19 Duke of ---, title created for the former King

Edward VIII following his abdication (7)

23 A loud, declamatory or

extravagant speech (4)

24 A remote or imaginary

utopia (7-2)

25 Louis ---, English artist best known for his drawings of anthropomorphised cats and kittens (4)

26 Distinctive or topical phrases used in politics or advertising (7) 28 Type of invertebrate, with jointed limbs, a segmented body and an exoskeleton made of chitin (9)

31 Tropical house plant with bright flowers and velvety leaves (7,6)

34 Paul ---, French composer whose best-known work was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (5)

36 Brazilian footballer whose full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento (4)

37 Properly or perfectly

done (slang) (5)

38 William ---, 25th US president, assassinated in 1901 (8)

39 A horse rated at even

money or less to win (4-2)

40 (I Can’t Get No) ---,

1965 No. 1 hit for The Rolling Stones (12)

Down

2 Margaret ---, Canadian author who was joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize for her novel

The Testaments (6)

3 A former name for the area of the east Mediterranean now occupied by Lebanon, Syria and Israel (3,6)

4 Little Bo- ---, traditional

nursery rhyme (4)

5 1867 work by Karl Marx containing the tenets on which modern communism is based (3,7)

6 A topic of interest

or discussion (5)

7 Short gruff noises

made by pigs (6)

8 Tall cylindrical military headdress with a plume and often a peak (5)

9 The large, flat, floating leaf of a flowering aquatic plant (4,3)

10 The main city, especially of

a country or region (10)

16 Dr John ---, Sherlock Holmes’ friend and assistant in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories (6)

18 J. --- Hoover, US lawyer and director of the FBI 1924-72 (5)

20 Successively; one after

the other (2,1,3)

21 American actress who won Oscars for her roles in Places In The Heart and Norma Rae (5,5)

22 Christian feast that falls on September 29; one of the four quarter days (10)

25 A novel or play concerned with a crime, usually murder (9)

27 Aircraft without engines, capable of soaring in air currents (7)

29 Calls forth

or provokes (6)

30 A garden summerhouse

with open sides (6)

32 Popular skiing resort

in Colorado (5)

33 A style of abstract painting utilising geometric patterns to create visual effects (2,3)

35 A predatory gull-like bird that harasses other birds into dropping fish they have caught (4)