7-across – Raul __ Cuban leader : CASTRO

8-across – Medical term for the human armpit : AXILLA

9-across – Paul __, former England football captain : INCE

10-across – Lighthouse southwest of the Scilly Isles : WOLFROCK

11-across – Ancient Greek name for the lands north of the Black Sea : SCYTHIA

13-across – __ Agassi, tennis champion : ANDRE

15-across – A card of elevated status in a trick-taking game : TRUMP

17-across – Hot dry Mediterranean wind, usually blowing from the south east : SIROCCO

20-across – Entrepreneur known for creating Tesla cars : ELONMUSK

21-across – See 4 Down : ROAD

23-across – New York basketball team : KNICKS

24-across – See 6 Down : AVENUE

1-down – 1920 novel by Sinclair Lewis set in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota : MAIN

2-down – See 1 : STREET

3-down – Founding member and rhythm guitarist for the Grateful Dead : BOBWEIR

4-down – The 1 2 in West Belfast? : FALLS

5-down – Beeban __, OBE, director of Oranges are not the Only Fruit and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason : KIDRON

6-down – Market 2 in Brixton, south London that was the first not to need gas lights? : ELECTRIC

12-down – Cardiff 2 known as Chippy Lane : CAROLINE

14-down – George __, Mr Darcy’s troublesome ward in Pride and Prejudice : WICKHAM

16-down – Sovereign country on the French Riviera : MONACO

18-down – Edna __, author of The Country Girls : OBRIEN

19-down – Member of Rwanda’s minority ethnic group : TUTSI

22-down – River forming, in part, the border between Russia and China : AMUR

7-across – Natural phenomenon also known as Mosi-oa-Tunya : VICTORIAFALLS

8-across – Russian city near the border with Belarus : SMOLENSK

9-across – City in Nevada – or Bill Clinton’s Attorney General? : RENO

10-across – Former England cricketer and current Test Match Special pundit : EBONY

12-across – Annual meteor shower : PERSEID

14-across – Ben __, Washington Post editor during Watergate : BRADLEE

16-across – See 5 Down : TWEED

19-across – Russian city near the Urals – or a once popular hairstyle? : PERM

20-across – See 10 : RAINFORD

22-across – George Bernard Shaw comedy set during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War : ARMSANDTHEMAN

1-down – Name for what is now Thailand : SIAM

2-down – The nom de guerre of Joseph Dzhugashvili : STALIN

3-down – See 10 Across : BRENT

4-down – Pale yellowish cloth originally from Nanjing, China : NANKEEN

5-down – Handwoven Hebridean cloth protected by a 1993 act of parliament : HARRIS

6-down – Scene of a Canadian gold rush between 1896 and 1899 : KLONDIKE

11-down – Thomas __, Victorian fashion designer whose brand still bears his name : BURBERRY

13-down – Gillian __, artist whose statue of Millicent Fawcett stands in Parliament Square, London : WEARING

15-down – Reversible figured fabric, usually of silk or wool : DAMASK

17-down – __-SS, the armed wing of the Nazi Party : WAFFEN

18-down – La __, Michelangelo sculpture in St Peter’s Basilica : PIETA

21-down – The Iranian currency : RIAL

6-across – Quantum chemist and husband of Angela Merkel : JOACHIM

7-across – See 6 : SAUER

9-across – The capital of what was West Germany : BONN

10-across – Strait between mainland South America and Tierra del Fuego : MAGELLAN

11-across – The author, so they claimed, of the Dear Bill letters in Private Eye : DENISTHATCHER

14-across – Royal also known as Baron Carrickfergus : PRINCEWILLIAM

17-across – The capital of Chad : NDJAMENA

19-across – Island nation, capital Suva : FIJI

21-across – Evelyn Waugh comedy featuring the journalist Boot : SCOOP

22-across – Dame __ Bell Burnell, astrophysicist : JOCELYN

1-down – Venetian merchant traveller – or a team sport played on horseback : POLO

2-down – The practice of describing the metrical pattern of verse : SCANSION

3-down – Word meaning ‘fate’ in several languages, including Turkish : KISMET

4-down – Whom had you better call, should you be in the drugs business in Albuquerque? : SAUL

5-down – Éamon __, Irish nationalist and founder of Fianna Fáil : DEVALERA

8-down – Site of the Taj Mahal : AGRA

12-down – The wife of Orpheus and the daughter of Apollo? : EURIDYCE

13-down – ITV series starring James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale : COLDFEET

15-down – __ Hazard, Belgian footballer : EDEN

16-down – 1887 play by Chekhov : IVANOV

18-down – __ Barksdale, Stringer Bell’s boss in The Wire : AVON

20-down – Recording artist and husband of Beyoncé : JAYZ

7-across – The world’s third largest island : BORNEO

8-across – By what does the knife miss Yossarian in the 9 4 of Catch-22? : INCHES

9-across – James __, German composer and big band leader : LAST

10-across – __ Chopin, Polish composer : FREDERIC

11-across – At what is Dorothy glad to be, according to the 9 4 of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? : HOMEAGAIN

13-across – Into what are we ceaselessly borne, according to The Great Gatsby’s 9 4? : THE

15-across – See 2 Down : DAY

17-across – What can Midnight’s Children not do in peace, according to its 9 4? : LIVEORDIE

20-across – A follower of the doctrines of Vladimir Ulyanov : LENINIST

22-across – See 13 : PAST

23-across – The island in Waugh’s Black Mischief : AZANIA

24-across – __ and the Grasshopper, one of Aesop’s Fables : THEANT

1-down – Principality in southern France : MONACO

2-down – What is tomorrow, according to Gone with the Wind’s 9 4? : ANOTHER

3-down – Studies in melody popular in late-Renaissance Italy : SOLFEGGI

4-down – Plimsoll __, indicator of a ship’s legal limit of submersion : LINE

5-down – Tropical fruit related to the lychee : ACKEE

6-down – The point in the sky directly above the observer : ZENITH

12-down – The Bourne __, the first in the series starring Matt Damon : IDENTITY

14-down – The __, poem by Kahlil Gibran : PROPHET

16-down – City in Tuscany : AREZZO

18-down – I am, in Italian : IOSONO

19-down – Of what was the Old Man dreaming, in the 9 4 of The Old Man and the Sea? : LIONS

21-down – Country lying between Turkey and Pakistan : IRAN

7-across – The capital of Mali : BAMAKO

8-across – German coding machine deciphered at Bletchley Park in 1940 : ENIGMA

9-across – Unlikely location – and film – for Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes? : INBRUGES

10-across – English mathematician known for her work with Charles Babbage : ADA

11-across – Garment favoured by 1970s revolutionaries? : MAOSUIT

13-across – See 19 : MYERS

15-across – Singer whose debut album was 19 : ADELE

17-across – 1972 Oscar winning movie starring Liza Minnelli : CABARET

19-across – Character in Spooks played by Hermione Norris : ROS

20-across – See 10 : LOVELACE

22-across – A fermented Chinese tea : OOLONG

23-across – The first given name of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex : RACHEL

1-down – Eve’s firstborn son : CAIN

2-down – The second sign in the zodiac : TAURUS

3-down – Dorothy __, winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry : HODGKIN

4-down – River reaching the sea at Hartlepool and Redcar : TEES

5-down – Dame __ Mantel, author of Wolf Hall : HILARY

6-down – Author who created Peter Pan : JMBARRIE

12-down – Elizabeth Garrett __, pioneering surgeon : ANDERSON

14-down – University based in Cambridge, MA : HARVARD

16-down – Greek island in the north-eastern Aegean Sea : LESBOS

18-down – The northernmost town in Wales : AMLWCH

20-down – Danish plastic toy company : LEGO

21-down – First Nation whose members live mostly in Canada : CREE