| DELABECHE | Englishman whose years in Lyme Regis and acquaintance with fossil collector Mary Anning inspired his palaeontological interest and subsequent founding of the world's first geological survey (2,2,5) |
| VANBRUGH | Englishman whose career combined designing palaces and country houses with Nicholas Hawksmoor and writing Restoration comedies (8) |
| RAT | Chinese animal whose year just ended |
| ACKNOWLEDGE | Recognise the existence of current acquaintance with facts |
| NOAH | Announce acquaintance with one Mr Taylor (4) |
| ANNING | Mary ___, 19th-century pioneering fossil collector from Lyme Regis, Dorset (6) |
| COBB | The -; breakwater forming a harbour and promenade in Lyme Regis that features in Persuasion and The French Lieutenant's Woman (4) |
| FOSSIL | Any one of the prehistoric remains collected from Lyme Regis by Mary Anning - the palaeontologist said to have inspired the tongue-twister "She sells seashells on the seashore" (6) |
| AUSTEN | Author whose novel Persuasion is partly set in Lyme Regis (6) |
| AMMONITE | Fossilised spiral shell of an extinct mollusc common in Lyme Regis or Charmouth (8) |
| LYMEREGIS | Dorset town where Mary Anning made significant fossil discoveries in the 19th century |
| MERE | Old boundary miles before lake in Lyme Regis (4) |
| LYM | River in Lyme Regis (3) |
| BARRIE | Playwright and novelist whose summer spent on the Scottish isle of Eilean Shona inspired his make-believe world Neverland, inhabited by Lost Boys, mermaids, Peter Pan and a fairy he called Tinker Bell |
| MISTAKENPOINT | UNESCO World Heritage Site (located on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland) with fossils of multicellular organisms from 565 million years ago in the Ediacaran Period: 2 wds. |
| PALAEONTOLOGY | Which branch of science is concerned with fossil animals and plants? (13) |
| PRALINE | Nut confection named after a French duke who inspired his chef to invent it; or, a chocolate filled with said nutty sweetmeat or with fondant (7) |
| THOMASGRAY | Poet buried in the location which apparently inspired his best-known work |
| IRWINRSCHYSTER | WWE wrestler whose three initials spell out the federal agency that inspired his gimmick |
| NICK | Conservative MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton; Minister of State for Schools appointed in 2015 |
