Cryptic crossword No 1,085

Nicely done, Amoeba. Glad I saved this to do myself but now appreciate the odd comment that popped up during the second solve last night. Funny to see the overlaps. Could have ticked any, tbh; they're all solid and plenty were fun. So, to tick a few highlights: 12a, 14a, the 16a/18a combo, 26a, 6d, 13d, 15d and 20d. Thanks. PM

Really enjoyed this one, thanks Amoeba - pitched at a good level of difficulty for me and very fairly clued throughout. Found the SE rather harder than the rest with 19D a NHO. Some lovely stuff, particularly 10A, 11A, 26A, 4D, 6D, 15D (beautiful, COTD) and 26D.

Nice puzzle! I was especially impressed with your clues for shorter words it looks like--it must have felt amazing to discover 15d, but 5d, 26d were also really tight. The def for 22d seems off to me? "Unless" seems like it means "except possibly if" rather than "only if"? But these words are tricky and maybe there's a way to use "unless" I'm missing. My american solve found this one to be much friendlier than most of the mycrossword offerings, with only 2d, 17d and 26 inscrutable. But...

A week late to this but thoroughly enjoyed it. That 15d is a peach! (even if it is also a chestnut… it’s the first time I’ve seen it, anyway) - nice work! 👏