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Hi Smellyharry. I'd got nearly all the answers before managing any grid-fill. It was only some hopeful googling for creator's names giving such a lot of letters that led to the outside name(s), after which the grid-fill was pretty easy. This does seem rather tough. A bit of a hint as regards the creator would have helped (especially as the thematic title was fairly obscure in my view).

My way in was to realise there are only two 3-letter answers which must fit on the bottom two rows, intersecting with one of the 8-letter answers. A nice logic puzzle once most of the clues had been cold-solved.

Could the bottom row not have contained the unclued 7-letter answer?

It could indeed quisling.

Finished now. My 30th cold solved clue out of 34 yielded my 12th letter, got the work, then a pretty trivial 10 minutes from there to fill the grid. Not my cup of tea this one, doesn't really fulfil the most basic requirement of a crossword IMV.

Enjoyed this hugely. Mostly because it was a rare finish for me.

Call me a pedant but shouldn't the first unclued be plural?

Yes - shown as plural in all renditions I have seen …

Quisling (and Smelly), I couldn't fit the unclued answer on the bottom line around any combination of the two three-letter answers. This was the step I saw as providing some entry into the grid-filling absent the name.

I think the issue being raised was about starting the gridfill before having the thematic information

Once you have the thematic info the issue falls away to some extent as you can simply enter the 8 length answer

Indeed, candledave. When one has the two three-letter answers and the two either side of the unclued seven-letter answer, one can infer the second letter of that seven-letter answer, even without the theme, and as it doesn’t appear in the three-letter ones that rules it out of the bottom row. But it can’t be assumed a priori, and the clue beginning “What one may sign …” is one of the trickiest.

I see. Yes. And one of the trickiest clues.