Tls 1016

[aeronut]

Help needed. This is somewhat academic as there are alternative spellings for three of the other answers.
However, I'm stuck on 19 across: Spanish gunmen choose endless confusion (5)
where I have ?c?os

[Ouzel]

Ochos

[aeronut]

Please connect this for me with some reference to literature.
I had previously explored that possibility and found none.
I see that chos could be endless choose, but how about the o.

[Mamyalynne]

Choos(e) in confusion (anagrammed) - OCHOS

Ocho is Eight....

Best I can find is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eight_(novel)


Poor I know.

[Ouzel]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ocho

[aeronut]

That's quite a stretch Mamyalynne (for Spanish Gunmen), but if you can't come up with the answer i doubt that I can. And with (I count 3) alternative spellings for other clues and no one entirely correct so far,,,

[aeronut]

You may be correct Ouzel, but the Urban Dictionary does not usuallly figure in the TLS.

Thanks to both of you.

[Mamyalynne]

I am sure my stab is way off and hopefully someone will spot it for you.

[dafyddapgwilym]

And please can someone parse 20down for me: it must be Oceania, but I don't see why - surely it ought to be Oceanus, but 27ac has to be Familiar...

[aeronut]

27ac is familist
20dn is oceanus

[dannyk13]

Ochos? (anagram of choos(e)

[aeronut]

Thanks. I understand the parsing now but I don't get the reference to literature tying this to Spanish gunmen.

[Zabadak]

I reckon that Urban Dictionary entry is pretty convincing. TLS does not limit itself to literary answers: see 2d in this one, for example. The wordplay here doesn't really allow alternatives, though then again I concede that with the TLS that is no guarantee of anything!