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Thanks again Jono and Geeker.

Hi everyone

I didn't find this a walk in the park. I got some of the easy ones quickly, but soon got stuck on the rest, including 6d. I struggled with fully parsing some (21ac, 25ac - the fifth and sixth letters -,13d and 22d - I know the word, but have never eaten it. I thought a number of clues had extraneous words or letters. But perhaps my brain wasn't on it today after a very busy week plus I had to stop and take my husband to the station. He and my daughter were off to Plymouth to see Welsh opera. There is no late train back to Exeter on a Saturday, but fortunately a friend is giving them a lift back.

My FOI was 19ac, LOI 15ac and CODs 26ac, 11ac and 17d. I couldn't fully parse the latter for ages, then I had a PDM. Like Brendan I was held up parsing 10d by forgetting who Matilda was.

Pleased to see the good people of the SW supporting things like the Welsh Opera Roof. We don't get these things all that often so we have to make the most. I'm currently in the land of Opera so not able to go. I hope they have a good time.

I have an expression meaning "sick" which fits 3d, but I don't get "call in". Any hints? And then there's 15a; I have no idea what that is. I'm confident that I've got the crossers right, but to be certain, are they the same?

Read the first word upwards

In addition to the responses of geeker & jono, I thought that the G of 6d related to the generation ("children") referenced in Salmon Rushdie's novel, thus cross-linking to 12a. Perhaps I just tend to overthink these things.

Great fun, many thanks. But add me to the camp that queries use of “strict” in 14. Humans are omnivores; the animal in question is pure and simple carnivore. The unnecessary word is not only an offence against the law of concision but an unfair red herring. I spent a long time time fretting over the word strict. Even thought it was the definition for most of my think time over it. Don’t mind misdirection of course, but it has to be fair/integral to the workings of the clue. This was just a superfluous word. In my opinion!

As mentioned earlier, the first word is a synonym for “strict”, so its use confirms (cryptically) the specific carnivore in question.

Having Googled, I've found the NHO (dubious) parenting approach. I still think the clue works perfectly well without the "strict", though.

The strict , to me, meant a type of mother. I thought it was a good clue and the strict was essential. Otherwise, carnivore was a really loose clue.