Cryptic crossword No 1,169

This puzzle is a tribute to Joseph Heller, who would have celebrated his centenary in May 2023. Spoilers in reply…

Excellent theme incorporation, Glynos. I don't know the book well but have sufficient awareness to have picked up on many of the references. Your annotations revealed more. Favourites include 7d, 8d, 16d, 23d (COTD), 3d, 4d, 14d, 19d and 22d. Thanks. PM

It's been a long while since I read 7a (delightful clue) and likely missed most of the thematic richness but certainly had fun with this puzzle and found it a satisfying level of difficulty. I also liked 23a (clean), 1d (neat), 3d (neat), 5d (smooth), 8d (nice), 17d (neat), 19d (very neat) and 27d (nice surface construction) - thanks for the puzzle Glynos!

Thanks, glynos - I really enjoyed this. Just the right, relatively gentle level of difficulty for me and lots of neat clues. The theme passed me by but, now I know, I can see how well executed that was. My picks were 16a, 23a, 29a, 31a, 4d, 8d, 19d and 22d

Thanks Glynos, enjoyed this a lot, particularly as the opener is a big favourite - 3d + 4d, and 6d 26a 15a in particular raised smiles for the thematic references. I misremembered the exact quote but accoring to Wikipedia: Told by an interviewer that he had never produced anything else as good as Catch-22, Heller famously responded, "Who has?"

Thanks, glynos, I found this an enjoyable and accessible puzzle. 7a is superb, very nicely done. Also like what you've done with 3d and 4d - most amusing. Among other faves were 16a, 3d, 22d.

Hi glynos - you probably won’t see this, but I remember this popping up during a very busy time and, given I love the book, I knew I would come back to it eventually, and I’m so glad I did. This was a lovely thematic grid fill and raised loads of smiles. I smiled once at 3d, thinking what a clever nod, so when the penny finally dropped for 4d it was a great moment. I also loved the other references, especially the quote. All that aside, this was filled with remarkably neat, tight clues making…