The nouns from the first sentence of a book (in the ODQ) appear as unclued lights — apart from two. One of these two is revealed by extracting one or two letters at a time from six normal solutions, leaving real words as entries. The other appears diagonally in the grid and must be highlighted. Two of these unclued lights also appear in the title of the book. Elsewhere, ignore an accent.

Across

1 Lark serving man truffles? (5)

4 Lothario excited almost all maidens (9, two words)

11 Suits altered with European woven fabric (6)

12 Sleep for moment in time, like Shakespeare’s night? (7)

14 Genus of flowers: Paul messed with it (6)

15 Case, ultimately small and sweet? (5)

22 Liquid that’s distilled from new ulcer (7)

24 One taken in by most of mock doesn’t pass (5)

25 Poem’s recital did not pay (4)

33 Love to get a bit of power back for capital (6)

34 Three, odd number (5)

38 Record number of goals? (5)

41 Most lavish plants are deadheaded in fort (6)

Down

1 They’re stealing pirate’s parrot, we hear, and they’re making chips (13, hyphened)

2 Throw us a ten, somehow (6)

3 Good Joanna gives up ecstasy, sadly (6)

4 Fuse panel without leads — it’s unnecessary and delightful (6)

5 A pass … may be prescribed by this (4)

6 One’s work raising a party for woodlice (7)

7 Make sure about where they say White’s QBP starts (5, two words)

8 Like some odds, they are contradictory (8, hyphened)

10 Hesitate, getting involved with heavy motion carried (13, four words)

13 JFK, perhaps, let red wine breathe? (7)

15 Teams getting pressure to replace name of horses (7)

17 Has agonised emotions in the bounds of Scotland (6)

18 Intrepid flying by all means, finally (6)

19 For one piercing very slender weapon (7)

20 Sweater might be a ____ , in a way (6)

23 Rupert Bear, stripped, swimming in hole (8)

26 See doctor I see (‘Doc’) (7)

29 Country keeps Old Testament writing system (8)

30 Incense ingredient canine found in country (6)

32 Make less substantial loss after sacking earl (5)

36 Jock’s one-time affair, suffering memory loss? (4)

A first prize of £30 for the first correct solution opened on 9 August. There are two runners-up prizes of £20. Please scan or photograph entries and email them (including the crossword number in the subject field) to crosswords@spectator.co.uk — the dictionary prize is not available. We will accept postal entries again at some point. Apologies that there may be a delay in sending out prizes at present.

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