Agree this was at the harder end, but enjoyable none the less.
My thanks to Brendon for the parsing of 5 and 13d. The latter had me perplexed even after his explanation - I could see the consume part and the headless fish, but couldn't account for the single letter in the middle, nor the 'in the north' part. But then I had a sudden PDM, so all is well! Great clue. Also enjoyed 1d and 24a (my LOI)