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

6-across – Rabindranath __, Bengali polymath : TAGORE

7-across – Name given to the first European settlement in South Africa : CAPEOF

9-across – See 7 : GOOD

10-across – See 13 Down : BAKEOFF

11-across – The __, US sitcom about the beginning of the universe? : BIGBANGTHEORY

14-across – Lead singer for the Pretenders : CHRISSIEHYNDE

17-across – Sir Sidney __, Oscar winning star of Lilies of the Field : POITIER

19-across – See 7 : HOPE

20-across – Hagia __, museum in Istanbul : SOPHIA

21-across – The capital of New York State : ALBANY

1-down – Sir Derek __, star of Last Tango in Halifax : JACOBI

2-down – Family at the centre of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath : JOAD

3-down – Spiritual song based on Ezekiel 37 : DEMBONES

4-down – Fashion brand, controversially abbreviated : FCUK

5-down – Scottish town known in Gaelic as Baile Fharfair : FORFAR

8-down – Greek mathematician and astronomer : PTOLEMY

12-down – See 13 : BRITISH

13-down – Television show hosted by Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding : THEGREAT

15-down – The personification of sleep in Greek mythology : HYPNOS

16-down – __ Circle – where Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire meet in Washington DC? : DUPONT

18-down – Country, capital Tehran : IRAN

19-down – The Greek goddess of youth : HEBE

7-across – Greek poet from the island of Lesbos : SAPPHO

8-across – Russia’s – and the world’s – largest lake by volume : BAIKAL

9-across – Star of La La Land : RYAN

10-across – Ligurian city, south of Genoa : LASPEZIA

11-across – Doris __, author of The Good Terrorist : LESSING

13-across – University in Birmingham : ASTON

15-across – Iconic US brand of reusable lighters : ZIPPO

17-across – Sergei and Yulia __, poisoned with novichok in Salisbury : SKRIPAL

20-across – The Song of __, epic poem from 1855 by Henry Longfellow : HIAWATHA

21-across – Donna __, creator of the Venetian detective Guido Brunetti : LEON

23-across – __ Steinem, journalist and activist : GLORIA

24-across – French city on the Loire : NANTES

1-down – US spy pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 : GARY

2-down – Michael and Leon __, boxers : SPINKS

3-down – See 9 Across : GOSLING

4-down – The __, James Cameron film from 1989 : ABYSS

5-down – Joan __, late comedian : RIVERS

6-down – Canadian province between Ontario and Saskatchewan : MANITOBA

12-down – Member of Monty Python : ERICIDLE

14-down – Country from which Crimea was annexed in 2014 : UKRAINE

16-down – See 1 : POWERS

18-down – __ Records, founded in Jamaica in 1959 : ISLAND

19-down – __ Frome, 1911 novel by Edith Wharton : ETHAN

22-down – Michael __, former England footballer : OWEN