Aren’t I lucky? I get Myrtilus again to unravel, and as before there are plenty of delights along the way and no errors either in arty facts or artefacts to complain about. There are more clues where the definition and wordplay are the same set of words (&lit) than you'll see in a week of Times's, all beautifully crafted. The breadth of literary knowledge required (or needing to be acquired) is substantial, including that of two of the bard’s lesser known works, and from 100 BCE to pretty much the present day. That said, the wordplay in the clues is helpful enough in most cases to have a poorly-informed but credible stab at the answer. No guess the missing word quotations either. I took 36’27” to work through to a solution, and more fun looking up the references afterwards to prepare for revealing, with definitions in italics and solutions in BOLD CAPITALS...
Across
1 Mr Jorrocks’s hunt is mostly held close to Sowerby Bridge (7,5)
HANDLEY CROSS. Jorrocks was the comic creation of R S Surtees, and was the master of the Handley Cross (Hunt). That in turn is the alternate title to our definition. For the wordplay, looking suitably Northern, held gives us HANDLED, mostly obliges us to remove the final D, close to Sowerby donates Y, and bridge translates to CROSS
9 A talk about Olaf Kyrre? (4)
SAGA Olaf Kyrre, otherwise known as Olaf III, stars in the Norse kings’ sagas, and was present at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. Chelsea drew 2-2. A talk, A GAS reversed gives you the desired answer, the definition being the entire clue..
10 Not exactly a consul or one who aimed to become one (10)
CORIOLANUS. Another &littish clue: a Reduced Shakespeare Company version of the play, but also contains the anagram that provides another route to the answer in A CONSUL OR I (one), signalled by “Not exactly”. Brush up your Shakespeare.
11 Glorify one town: one linked to Kent? (8)
IDEALISE. I (one) DEAL (town) I (one) and S(outh) E(ast) where Kent, from a certain perspective, is located, and which here it stands for. Handily, Deal is indeed in Kent.
12 Tennyson had her “whirl like leaves” loudly towards one old lady (6)
FATIMA. From the eponymous poem by Alfred Tennyson
"Lo, parch'd and wither'd, deaf and blind,
I whirl like leaves in roaring wind."
Loudly F (music), towards AT (“she came at me all guns blazing”) one I (again) and old lady MA.
13 Borthrop’s one with lots to pass on (10)
AUCTIONEER Cf Mr Borthrop Trumble in Middlemarch by George Eliot, cryptically indicated as one with lots (geddit?) to pass on
15 Chopin’s rebellious wife returned with Beethoven’s third (4)
EDNA Not that Chopin. Didn’t quite have one. Kate Chopin created the prototype feminist Edna Pontellier in her scandalous 1899 novel, The Awakening. Take AND for “with”, tack on BeEthoven’s third, and return the package.
16 & 6. This artist loves mingling with New York’s fringe (4,3)
YOKO ONO. There has to be a way of dealing with four awkward Os in two clues, so to that number of “loves”, throw in N(ew) and Y(or)K (fringes only) and churn for the Japanese performance artist who knew a good Lennon when she saw one. Very decent surface gives a strong &lit flavour to the clue. It also prompted me to check whether she had been put on the cart yet. Not dead yet, but this is a dodgy year to be famous and alive.
17 Publishing more about art, but dropping an article about Romeo (10)
REPRINTING RE (about) PAINTING (art) swap out the A (article) for the R(omeo)
19 An academic’s the subject of Bion’s epitaph (6)
ADONIS Bion of Smyrna (fl c 100 BCE) wrote an Epitaph of Adonis, one of the few fragments to survive. A(n) DON (academic) and IS from the ‘S
20 A bloomer broadcast and reproduced on the radio (8)
SOWBREAD. Not that sort of bloomer, or that one, but the doughy one. SOW broadcast, BREAD for bred, “reproduced” if you hear it on the radio and can’t spell.
22 A piece of play ultimately lacking ball control (10)
ASCENDANCE Take a SCENE as part of a play, cut it short as indicated and add a DANCE or ball.
24 He wrote novels, but mostly plays an oboe, endlessly (4)
SHAW Liked this 4 letter cutie a lot. George Bernard Shaw did write novels, but indeed the greater majority of his works were plays. Detach “plays” from “an oboe” which is in one of its forms a SHAWM then present the SHAWM without its end, as instructed.
25 He’s apparently emptied out one of Dr. Fell’s cases (3,6,3)
THE HOLLOW MAN I do not like thee, Dr Fell... is not what you are looking for. Dr Gideon Fell is, star of John Dickson Carr’s detective stories, one of which is our answer, hinted at by the emptied out character at the beginning of the clue.
Down
2 Eliot claimed to show fear in this novel (1,7,2,4)
A HANDFUL OF DUST A double definition, really: it is a novel (1934), by Evelyn Waugh, and it is also a quote from T S Eliot’s The Wasteland (1922):
“And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
Waugh took his title from Eliot. Eliot also wrote “The Hollow Men” – ("This is how the world ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper") which echoes in this grid in the SE corner.
3 What helps when looking up Anne Shirley’s friend, Barry? (5)
DIANA This is Anne as in of Green Gables, and Diana Barry is her BFF. What helps until inverted? An aid. There’s your wordplay.
4 Writers’ bureaux regularly receive stories in redraft (11)
ESCRITOIRES A straight cryptic, though still in a literary world. First gather your letters, the alternates from ReCeIvE, plus STORIES, then redraft them.
5 The line following “For whom the bell tolls” (7)
CORTEGE My favourite of the clues, affecting to be literary (...”It tolls for thee”) but actually a cryptic definition, as in the line that follows the person in the expensive box for whom the bell is tolling. Genius.
6 (See 16 Across) (3)
Please do
7 Most thin yarns can tie storage boxes (9)
SCANTIEST After the definition, the answer is boxed in yarnS CAN TIE STorage.
8 An agent on marihuana crashed when collecting a vehicle (3,3,2,6)
OUR MAN IN HAVANA Graham Greene’s novel about a hapless spy, James Wormold, in 1950’s Cuba. An anagram of ON MARIHUANA with an inserted VAN.
12 Martins and Lime turned up in one (6,5)
FERRIS WHEEL Pling a pling a pling, a pling. That’s Harry Lime, then meeting Holly Martins in Vienna’s shed and giant bicycle wheel combo. I don't think this is more than a semi cryptic indication. Unless of course, you know better. Read all about it in Graham Greene’s The Third Man, or better, watch the film from which the novel comes
14 A description of the most unpleasant sort in The Metamorphosis (9)
THORNIEST. Important to break this anagram clue in the right place. SORT IN THE gives you the letters, Metamorphosis the instruction. No need for Kafka, or Ovid, for that matter.
18 Posthumus’s order got to him from an Italian city by satellite (7)
PISANIO What you need to know is that, in Cymbaline, Postumus sends a message to his servant Pisanio to have his (Postumus’) wife killed, which, fortunately for all concerned, upsets Pisanio greatly, hence “got to him”. The word play combines the adjectival PISAN (of an Italian city) with IO, satellite of Jupiter.
21 A note saying more cuts are needed! (5)
RESAW A note is RE, a saying is SAW. Not many other ways to fill R?S?W.
23 Julius Caesar’s cast (3)
DIE Love this clue. Julius Caesar says “alea iacta est” (there are variations, including saying it in Greek) on crossing the Rubicon, irrevocably committing himself to war with Pompey’s Rome. Translated traditionally, it’s “the die is cast”, creating for us in this special context an identity between the two words.