Under different conditions, mum would lose the head and read out letters (9)
I believe the answer is:
otherwise
'under different conditions' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'head and read out letters' is the wordplay.
'head' becomes 'other' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'read out' shows a homophone (sound like).
'letters' becomes 'Ys' (more than one Y).
'ys' sounds like 'wise'.
'other'+'wise'='OTHERWISE'
'mum would lose the' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for otherwise that I've seen before include "Alternatively" , "White rose seen in a different way" , "Under different conditions" , "As an alternative - like white rose" , "White rose (anag.)" .)
