Friday 5 June

Across

9 Old fighter happy I reversed schedule (9) 10 The writer’s penning line as children’s author (5) 11 Blind faith in a male deity? Just the opposite (5) 12 Trying afresh, male gets absorbed in parental task (9) 13 Prior to game of cards, a cut (7) 14 Author named in expression of surprise (7) 17 Republican in charge producing offensive poster (5) 18 Backed team’s long shot (3) 19 Celia’s name-change? (5) 21 Lewis, Oxford don and writer (7) 23 Befuddled brain taking in article after article from part of Asia (7) 24 Short piece of text in suitable American structure (9) 26 Squeeze using spades in dummy (5) 28 Robust half of comic duo (5) 29 Test data? Assesses excessively (9)

Down

1 Old or modern artist endlessly showing up (4) 2 Kind of court that proceeds by leaps and bounds (8) 3 Italian playwright’s storyline mostly about Ireland, oddly (10) 4 Serious English or Irish novelist (6) 5 Dorothy’s largely wrong steer, as usual (8) 6 Novel part of proof putting off learner at first (4) 7 A large tree or plant (6) 8 Floating object waterbird’s almost turned over (4) 13 Like part of ancient Greece that’s accessible by flights? (5) 15 People as created initially in books (10) 16 Author’s a mug, used to drink a lot (5) 18 Process yielding mixed results is what you seek (8) 20 Launch minimal review of restaurant (8) 22 Write for newspaper about position of left wing (6) 23 English author sharing pronouncement with state capital (6) 24 A pale cast? Just the opposite (4) 25 Fish farm, so to speak (4) 27 Tragic heroine, as Dickinson, say, quaintly concludes (4)