Clockwise round the grid from 16 run the titles of four works (4,4,9,6,1,5,3,5,3,4,6) by a late great 3 (two apostrophes) followed by the 3’s initials. The remaining unclued lights combine to give a further such title (three words in total). Elsewhere, ignore an apostrophe.
Across
9 Middle-Easterner very soon returns (5)
10 Shrew lacks a house (5)
11 Old physician sheltered children (5)
12 Bear’s appetite (7)
13 Short purple satin dresses with nothing in bad style (10, two words)
16 Smart bastard shuns wet (5)
18 Primula withered beside brook (8, hyphened)
19 Grimy early English church edged by River Wye (6)
21 Some practise section of opera (3)
24 Male with box for women’s clothing (5)
25 See me boring woman (5)
28 Girl B: why not a beauty? (6)
29 Assault with ladders in bizarre case-load (8)
34 Dance in prison (5)
36 Cheap lodgings that could make marshal sad (10)
37 Lass with a great worry (7)
38 Give satisfaction when lunch is served? (5)
39 Handwriting of Canadian Eskimo (5)
40 Radical sea monster almost stripped kyle (5)
Down
1 Stringed instrument fair Virginia holds (5)
2 Mournful career girl struggling without the three Rs (7)
4 Floor containing Arab’s prime fodder (6)
5 Boredom united nine bats (5)
6 Paramours cooked the two fish Romeo caught (8)
7 Poet carries on like Humpty Dumpty (5)
8 Important date for goddess (5)
15 Plant round most of hut (5)
17 Love is very much about (4)
20 Soaring round Thailand is familiar insect (5, hyphened)
22 Trojan fixed sidecars (8)
27 Satire by rascal about American politician (7)
30 Modest hotel social group overruns (6)
31 We hear fishes breed (5)
32 Athletic chap grabs one violently (5)
33 Cruel criminal is a constant source of evil (5)
35 African people curse on Tuesday (5)
A first prize of £30 for the first correct solution opened on 15 May....
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