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One of those Pauls where, at first glance, my heart sank, but then I seemed to hit his wavelength and everything fell into place nicely. Good fun along the way too.
FOI 9, LOI 17, which views for my COD with several others 1, 8 and 12 to name but three).
What I think counts as a mini-theme in there too.
Thanks to Paul.

Hi Roger,

Like you, this took me an age to get started but, once I did, things went in fairly quickly.

HThat being said, there are still a few bits of wordplay and definitions that I can't quite fathom.

For instance, I can't parse any of 7d though I know my answer is correct, given that it's the only word that fits the letter pattern and is also a "smaal jumper".

Also. is 1d a literary allusion I haven't heard of?

Lastly, why is 17d "female" - I know the first word is also part of a derogatory Cockney rhyming slang term, but I find it hard to believe The Guardian editors would let that through, especially in this day and age.

Anyway, thanks to Paul for an entertaining and challenging puzzle.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,
7d is a tricky parse. It’s 3, 3 with a letter inserted into the second 3.
1d - I don’t see a literary allusion. I think it’s just a DD, with the second definition being cryptic and food-related.
For 17d you need to split up the word you’ve queried. Nothing derogatory, I’m pleased to say.
Hope that helps!

Thanks to Paul.
I haven't had a great solving week, but found this very challenging, just short of "beast" category.
Started slowly, made decent progress for a while, but the RHS, particularly the NE quadrant, proved troublesome.

FOI 23, LOI 7.

Too many good clues to consider COD right now.

Brendan, 17d is brilliant IMO. Definition "film", parses as 4, 3 where both the 4 and the 3 are contained in a single word of the clue. (Trying to avoid spoilers.)

This US solver had a lot of trouble with the one (excellent) Pauline entry and with a geographical clue.

Thank Roger, thanks Geeker,

I see 7d now but I'm pretty sure 1a is part wordplay with "did you say" being a homophone indicator for first 5 letters "raised" and last 2 being "feeling of dread" - my problem is that Chambers only goves the the little obvious definition and doesn't mention "jewel thief"?

17d - I know the film - who doesn't? But can't see how splitting the firrst word makes it "female".

I did think of you, geeker, when I solved the geographical - not at all obvious even for UK citizens apart from locals, I’d say.
Not sure which clue you are referring to as Pauline - it all seemed relatively clean (for Paul) to me!

I think 6d is the Pauline clue.

Roger, the chess solution (so to speak, avoiding spoilers) also puzzled me, not knowing the UK slang usage.
I found 6 more than a little Pauline. Parsed a solution which I had to look up.
On balance a rough one for non-UK solvers.

Hi again, Brendan.
You originally referred to 1d, which is what I addressed. As to 1a, I would associate jewel thievery with a, shall we say, related thing.
17d - I was trying to suggest that you needed to split a word in the clue, not in the solution.