Cryptic crossword No 2,268

That was enjoyable, thank you. Favourites 24a, 1d and 8d, but there is a lot of good stuff here. A general observation is that your clues are a little "wordy" - if you can make them a bit more concise this will improve matters. A few spoilery observations in reply.

Thanks SWK, that was fun. My top picks were 10a, 24a, 14d, 19d, and 21d. More in reply.

That was excellent - and the first cryptic I have 'solved' on this site, I'm still learning so I had to reveal a few of the words - maybe about 3. I really like the clues and also thanks for providing annotated solutions.