ALAN BENNETT, WRITING HOME — [Kafka's] writing is that of someone whose... life was spent in apartments, with lifts, stairwells, muffled voices behind closed doors, and sounds through walls. Put him in a... detached villa and he'd never have written a word.
| A. | Triple Crown winner of 1978 | AFFIRMED |
| B. | Polaris, to navigators | LODESTAR |
| C. | Affecting a down-home sort of modesty (hyph.) | AWSHUCKS |
| D. | Get a firm grip on; finalize (2 wds.) | NAILDOWN |
| E. | Noisy and portentous Irish apparitions | BANSHEES |
| F. | King of England known as "Ironside" (2 wds.) | EDMUNDII |
| G. | Where an anchor may be seen | NEWSCAST |
| H. | Seven and eleven, in craps | NATURALS |
| I. | A black cat or a broken mirror, e.g. (2 wds.) | EVILOMEN |
| J. | Spiff up, make dapper | TITIVATE |
| K. | Divisions on an analog clock | TWELFTHS |
| L. | Retract; disengage | WITHDRAW |
| M. | Old World shorebird with colored legs | REDSHANK |
| N. | "___ is the heaviest of all oppressions" (Victor Hugo) | IDLENESS |
| O. | Mislead; emit (2 wds.) | THROWOFF |
| P. | Unreasonably high; pompous | INFLATED |
| Q. | Right-handed pitcher, jocularly | NORTHPAW |
| R. | Be successful in life (2 wds.) | GOPLACES |
| S. | Tower with a board attached (2 wds.) | HIGHDIVE |
| T. | Dixie, before the Civil War (2 wds.) | OLDSOUTH |
| U. | African capital named for a U.S. president | MONROVIA |
| V. | Certain New Testament writings | EPISTLES |