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AJT. There is no indicator to say that 'I' is to be translated into Latin to get 'EGO'. 'EGO' is not a direct synonym of 'I' in English. In English 'EGO' is a synonyn of 'self' or 'sef-pride'.

26 ac. A radius i a bone, The first half - rad, is "bent back.

Thanks, AJT. I always get stuck on references to anatomy. I suppose I should bone up on it!

Yet again, Ron, for ego, Chambers says "the I, or self"

sudokolover, thanks for the hints for 21a and 24a - I was completely stumped.

AJT thanks for the hints to 4 regally connected, I'd suspected (i learn)* and got 2d, but couldn't find the connection.

I agree with Ron that ego isn't synonymous with I - neither in the weighty Collins dictionary beside me, nor the online Chambers - I'd guessed the answer for 21a but couldn't make head or tail of the clue! I feel it could have been better indicated.

I've been doing Guardian crosswords for several weekes now and I have to say that this was the hardest by a very long chalk!

Yes this was the hardest Grauniad puzzle in a long while. I can usually knock them off in less than half-an-hour but this one took over an hour. My respect for Pasquale has increased greatly.

To Jack Holt - I have the latest Chambers in frontof me from which I quoted my previous reply. I have found constantly that Chambers online is not as complete as the publication.

Have just finished today's FT. As is often the case it is much more fun than the Saturday Guardian. Guardian compilers do seem to relish using very obscure words as solutions.

AJT, I didn't mean to question whether it's in your Chambers or not
(and I realise Chambers is the recommended reference), I was trying to say that I thought it could have been better clued, given that it doesn't appear in some dictionaries - the hefty Collins I use is normally very reliable. I also wonder whether ego meaning 'the I' (i.e. the sense of self), is the same as 'I', perhaps that seems a little nitpicky?

Here's the complete definition in Collins -

ego n., pl. egos. 1. the self of an individual person; the conscious subject. 2. Psycholanal. the conscious mind, based on perception of the environment from birth onwards; responsible for modifying the antisocial instincts of the id and itself modified by the conscience (superego). 3. one's image of oneself; morale: to boost one's ego. 4. egotism; conceit. [C19: from Latin: I]

Anyway, I'll try to remember it in future.

To Jack Holt - I went the other way round, and looked at "I" in Chambers; amongst other things it's given as "the object of self-consciousness, the ego", so although he may hve been stretching the point a little, I don't think you could say he was wrong.
I wasn't happy at 3 dn - I really quite doubt that it's a word. It isn't given in Chambers, and I tried the "Universal Anagram Solver" which gives you normally loads more than Chambers Word Wizards - really way-out things, but it wasn't there.