Listen With Others

Welcome back to Stick Insect – and a very neat title, if I may say so, for the theme, which proved to be the poem “When I am old I will wear purple” (and wear a red hat) by Jenny Joseph, who is suitably attired in the finished grid.

I found this one a middling solve: a bit tricky at first but not very hard once I got my eye in, and good fun all the way. My three slowest solves were 21a, where YEsTY had to be the answer but it took me ages to remember that YET can mean “at the same time”; 34a hENCE where I got delayed thinking “judgement” was the definition not SENTENCE – SENT; and 25d EAsTMAN where I finally gave a big grin when I realised that the “shooting gear” was to do with photography. How slow can one be?

That theme though? Most of you will know that I am a retired bishop, so as it happens, now I am old I wear purple much less… though that means the poem is a favourite as well.

Thanks Stick Insect. Nice one. Happy Christmas to you and all our fellow Listeners-In.