Cryptic crossword No 1,544

Gorgeous crossword! A smooth and steady solve with some really devious indicators ingeniously done. 1d a real standout, and 14d is very neat. I kicked myself once I'd understood the special instructions as understanding them earlier would have helped a good deal. Two tiny quibbles in the reply.

Thanks Gradgrind, very nice - some tricky parsing (eg 4d) but well worth the effort to tease out. Other faves include 13a, 23a (despite odd surface very neat wordplay) and 21d. Spoilers ...

Great stuff Gradgrind, thanks. Some very cunning wordplay to enjoy! Favourites included: 13a, 20a (once your notes explained the parse), 26a, 1d (notwithstanding Fez’s fair point), 6d, 17d (notwithstanding Mallimack’s fair point - I guess your defence might be that your home is in your profile) and 21d.

Thanks for this Grandgrind. A lot to enjoy here and technically very correct. Perhaps a few surfaces could do with polishing but nothing drastic and I had a good list of ticks including 15a, 17a, 27a, 4d, 5d, 21d, 25d (but bit weird). Spoilers...

All solved and explained bar one, Gradgrind. Good job. 10a, 27a, 4d and 14d were my bigger ticks. Spoiler in reply. Thanks. PM