Five unclued lights make up a six-word quotation (verifiable in ODQ) by an author whose name must be highlighted in the grid. Remaining unclued lights, all real words in Chambers, each begin with a word suggested by the first two words of the quotation. Ignore two accents and one apostrophe.
Across
1 Medieval soldier’s old injury’s wrapped with skill (8)
12 Island lacking sun in arctic fashion (5)
13 What CEO wants is for Siemens to keep strong (7)
15 Catholic service admitting old failures (6, hyphened)
17 Spots developing round tiny fruit tree (8)
21 Prisoners of French bearing south (8)
25 Weaving now taken from Norway, perhaps (3)
26 Base clergyman’s sin (3)
29 Part of Japanese capital, area by city, conceals onset of critical situation (8)
34 Stop twirling leg and relax (8)
36 Works on endlessly for each pound (6)
38 Mistakes from schoolchildren revolting head of school (7, hyphened)
39 Pair from Rome about to damage porcelain (5)
40 Workers keeping new order popular – they are committed to order (12)
41 Wall Street type rejected socialist realism? (6)
42 Character stops to catch bird in Indian foliage (8, two words)
Down
1 Structure is dampish in part of vessel (9)
3 Like ex-PM getting sent up in an inactive state (6)
4 Compiler turned to editor to get some relief (6)
5 Parts of curves of leg featuring in opening of Spenser’s verses (8)
6 Sartre’s convulsive seizures (7)
7 Prince skirts very noisy plebs (5)
8 Vienna sets out to show local quality (10)
9 Part of August is risky time of year (5)
11 Seeing red after cultivating grain (9, two words)
14 Twisted ring with ruby donned by German woman (7)
18 Bag last of silverware and nick something on restaurant table (10, two words)
19 Gold turned up on cliff in Chinese mountain (9)
20 Doctor with university holding horse down (7)
22 Order messy site, and so do this? (9)
24 Thoughtless English wilt after excursion (8)
30 Priest directed church parade (6)
32 Leave Sweden, needing rather to go outside (5)
33 Judge mimicked and mocked (5)
37 Liberal king put in charge (4)
A first prize of £30 for the first correct solution opened on 1 April.
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