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I agree - with a crossword you should know it's right when you've finished it (correctly, that is), and I didn't find any real confusion with the anagrams (the only confusions are as I've written above).

Surely it has to be elastic? I admit some of the redundant down words could fit in one or two of the across clues (especially when they're operators, such as inside or altering), but the actual word is pretty clear.

I thought the e came from the anagram of earnest? Do you think it is P?
I'm afraid I don't understand your reference to Nicholas Nickleby. Not sure I am going to recognise the answer if I ever get it.
This is proving much harder than I thought - I'm just going around in circles now.

I made it elastin, but I'm probably wrong - although it does fit - I probably used a different anagram form yours. Another word that I wasn't happy about was 4d - whether to use a or o. Chambers does acknowledge the a, but of course the o is more usual, but "anything" should surely be a.

"House with lots" should help. And you need an anagram of seven consecutive letters in the text.

But why is 18D Tourists (if it is, that is)?

I couldn't work that one out, either, but it obviously is tourusts. No extra word there, either. I should think there will be lots of complaints about this. I wonder if the crossword editor reads this.

I'm afraid your (AJT)reference to trading houses led me completely astray! I see what it is now. Thanks falconer.
Hopefully I can complete it inside today.

Sorry about that - I thought you would see it with just one letter to change.

No problem. I tend to see difficulties where there are none! Finished it now, though I despaired (ha ha) of doing so, earlier on.
Is 9A rhyming slang?
As Falconer says, there seem slight ambiguities in this puzzle.

Could not resist doing some research on 9A. Apparently Eric Blair wrote an essay in 1933 where he speculated that Cockney rhymning slang would die out as English became standardised. Makes it a terribly clever clue!

9ac I've no idea about the pen and ink. I just took the O for Orwell, and Chambers gives determined as a mesning for dour. Did you get "elastic" for 15 ac?