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Hi Richard, the first 5 letters give you the area and the skin, then the central letters of peeled

Hi Richard,

Yes, 26a is a tricky one - I think it's the first 5 letters are "are of skin" and the final 2 are "peELed" (removing outer layers)

Thanks both, I see it now. Should have better used the thing beneath that area of skin!

Morning all
Several peopke have praised 12a, but I can't parse it! Any hints?

Timeless fat gives you the first two.

Ultimately fictional gives you the third.

Man (in the Jeeves sense!) gives you the last five.

Hi Chris,

12a first 2 letters are "fat" timeless + (fictiona)L + "man" as a verb - the whole clue is the definition and refers to a Shakespeare character.

Thanks richardk and brendan. I missed the "man" as a verb.

I suppose “man” could be in the verb sense too...

Many enjoyable clues. I had to look up a couple of cultural references but otherwise managed all clues with no help - a first for me as I usually need hints from this forum.

I loved 7d too. Took me ages to see the construction or have any idea what it was about! so completing it was sweet.

The “well served” part of 13d I thought was particularly fine.

Hi Femmenoire,

I thought 7d was a particularly good clue and, as I said earlier, I'm surprised that answer doesn't appear more often in crosswords - it seems tailor made:-)