Some quite tricky stuff here and in a couple of cases it was a longish time before I heard the ka-ching. It's not that I find the Talos puzzles easier than the others but they are less likely to send me running to Google or other aids for help while solving. Afterwards I needed quite a bit of back-up with the parsing/blogging, as usual. This took me just under the hour in 2 sittings. Definitions (where appropriate) in italics underlined. Answers in bold caps.
P.S. The very best of luck to all our TLS regulars tomorrow. I'm envious, and sorry to be missing the pub gathering too. I'll be thinking of you!
Across
1. Observer piece from reporter in major trouble (3,7)
BIG BROTHER. Originally from George Orwell's 1984 but now inescapably part of our language. Very neat misdirection here. R=piece from [R]eporter contained in BIG=major, BOTHER=trouble.
6. Wharton would make one with her final cut (4)
EDIT. Remove the end from EDIT[h] and that's what she'd do.
10. Country gent backing island Zola's first to leave! (7)
NAMIBIA. NAM=gent (man) backwards with IBI[z]A=island minus the z in Zola.
11. English service held by one poet for another (7)
BERNARD. E[nglish] RN=service contained in BARD=poet. There seemed to be several candidates for the poet and I plumped for April the American. There are also Pam (American), Jay (British) and Bernard-the-beatnik-poet from Marvel comics.
12. New satire's biting about Diderot's form of wit (90
STAIRCASE. Anagram (new) of SATIRE'S containing (biting) CA=about. Nice one. Denis Diderot, the 18th Century French philosophe, lexicographer and polymath, gave us the term "l'esprit d'escalier (staircase en Francais)" to descibe that perfect bon mot we all think of but only after the intended recipient has long since left the buliding.
13. Rota Kundera shows obsessive Japanese geeks (5)
OTAKU. Nothing to do with the Czech writer Milan. These are the socially isolated kids who spend all their waking hours on the computer. Contained in [r]OTA KU[ndera].
14. Sort to hang around with a Dean of St. Patrick's (5)
SWIFT. SIFT=sort, hanging around W=with. Dean Jonathan Swift, 17th to 18th Century Anglo-Irish satirist and author of Gulliver's Travels and Tale of a Tub. That's St. Pat's in Dublin, not NYC.
15. She penned an Irish castle's border at cost (9)
EDGEWORTH. Maria, Anglo-Irish author of the 18th to 19th Century.EDGE=border. WORTH=cost. The reference is to Castle Rackrent, her very popular and influential novel of 1800.
17. Play about an unknown band that's bagged gong (9)
CYMBELINE. C=about. Y=unknown. LINE=band, containing MBE=gong. One of Shakespeare's less frequently performed works. I mostly know it because Imogen is my middle name.
20. Greek mistress melts after one replaces wife (5)
THAIS. Replace the W=wife in THA[w]S (melts) with I=one and you have the famous grande horizontale from the time of Alexander the Great.
21. Old work about Stoppard's West End shows (5).
EXPOS. EX=old. PO=op (work) reversed (about) with the S, the initial (West End) letter in Stoppard.
23. Ludwig Van fan having beer with Queen around ten (9)
ALEXANDER. ALE=beer. AND=with. ER=Queen. All surrounding X=ten. The reference is to Alexander Wheelock Thayer, 19th Century biographer of the definitive work on Beethoven. See Zabadak and PB infra.
25. Army musician alit without case on Central Line (7)
CORELLI. CORE=central. L=line. Middle two letters in [a]LI[t] (without case). The reference is to Captain Corelli's Mandolin, a novel by Louis de Bernieres, about Captain Antonio Corelli of the Italian army. The setting is a German-occupied Greek island during WWII.
26. Take back covers publisher filled with atomic reptiles (7)
TAIPANS. Extremely venomous Australian snakes. TIS=sit, as an exam, reversed (back), containing (covers) PAN=publisher and A=atomic. Quite a few of us had trouble parsing this. Neat one.
27. "Come, come, you --; i'faith, you are angry" (Taming of the Shrew) (4)
WASP. Petruchio to Kate in Act 2 Scene 1.
28. Ladies crow about man with conviction for love? (5,5)
OSCAR WILDE. Anagram (about) of LADIES CROW. Reference to his conviction in 1895 for gross indecency for "the love that dare not speak its name".
Down
1. Detective writer born in Fife (5)
BANKS. Double definition. The dective is Alan Banks from the series of novel by Peter Robinson which were later adapted for tv. The writer is Iain Banks, Scottish author from Kirkaldy, Fife.
2. Where one prepares to read my amusing novel (9)
GYMNASIUM. Anagram (novel) of MY AMUSING. This is "gymnasium" in the German sense as a place of learning not gymnastics.
3. Pen new best-seller or write only occasionally (6,8)
ROBERT TRESSELL. Pen, meaning author. Anagram (new) of BEST-SELLER OR with alternate (only occasional) letters in [w]R[i]T[e].
4. A hack's article about Macbeth's Glamis? (7)
THANAGE. THE=article containing A NAG=hack. Macbeth starts out as Thane of Glamis and it's all downhill from there.
5. Drug son and composer of Lulu with bit of Junk in port (7)
ESBJERG. Danish port. E=drug. S=son. BERG=Austrian composer of the opera Lulu, with J=junk in it.
7. Hope initially to return and take in hit play (5)
DRAMA. It took me some time to unravel this which felt stupid because it's such a simple clue. RAM=hit contained in DA, which, when reversed, are the first two initials of Alec Derwent Hope, Australian poet. Yes, I went chasing after Hope, as in Prisoner of Zenda.
8. She dug the ground for Moortown's farmer (3,6)
TED HUGHES. Anagram (ground) of SHE DUG THE. Reference to the diary of farm life in verse by the poet laureate.
9. Key study for one opinionated novel (1,4,4,1,4)
A ROOM WITH A VIEW. A=key. ROOM=study. WITH A VIEW=opinionated. 1905 novel by E.M. Forster set in Florence and Southern England. Pretty good 1980s film adaptation by Merchant Ivory with a stellar cast.
14. Not one to criticize Coward plays with half-done scenes (6,3)
SACRED COW. Anagram (plays) of COWARD, with first half of SCE[nes].
16. In a way, Pound had shown up Liberal author (5,4)
ROALD DAHL. ROAD=way containing L=Pound. DAH=had reversed (shown up) with L=Liberal.
18. Rabid socialist dumps first two right-leaning characters? (7)
ITALICS. Anagram (rabid) of [so]cialist dropping the first two letters.
19. A complex, creative work church member cut up (7)
ELECTRA. ART=creative work, CE=church, LE[g]=member cut, all reversed (up). In psychology a supposed father-fixation named after the daughter of Agamemnon.
22. Charge raised by one's Italian love rival (5)
PARIS. PAR=rap - charge reversed (raised) with IS=one's. Suitor of Juliet, cut out first by Tybalt and then by Romeo
24. Girl to have a drink with? Tea, perhaps! (5)
ROSIE. From Laurie Lee's 1959 book Cider with Rosie. Also Rosie Lee, cockney rhyming slang for tea.
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TLS Crossword 1144 by Talos - September 30, 2016
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