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Good morning Samovar. 24 across is a 3 letter monkey and begins with what is actually the last letter of 10 down because looking at the symmetry there should be no bar after the fifth letter. ( Anagram of lass + pa for past ) I am still not sure about the parsing of 7 down but the unchecked letter is W. ( I found the word in Chambers Word Wizard ). I agree Jigjag about the compiler - and for once he has not name-checked himself in either the clues or the grid. I was extremely lucky with this puzzle because I have 5 of the 6 books on theshelf behind me as I type.

Ah, well spotted with the rogue bar, alwayspuzzled. 10d makes sense now. I took red in 7d meaning revolutionary. It was the only way I could parse it. I could be totally wrong though and I still can't parse the monkey clue. Nice end game and a welcome change to grid staring.

I've been in many a rogue bar Jlc.

I've worked out the (unnecessarily difficult) clues to 7 and 24 now, although removal of the rogue bar means that 24 solves itself - if you've filled in the perimeter.

So, 7 is NEWIE. The extra letter is O, not W. I take 'red' to mean to 'put in order', so it's an anagram of 'wine' + 'left wing to excessive' (the letter E!).

And 24 can only be made to work if you take 'means' to signify 'the mean - aka middle - letter' of 'using' (I) and 'tasty' (S), which are then 'bats' (extra letter I) to trap A. I think the familiar anagrind 'bats' crosses the borderline into unfair territory here - how can you make an anagram out of two letters? But he does it again in cell block 5, using another anagrind for two letters. In the case of SAI, I can't see how such a bizarre clue is justified.

Finally got a full grid + the message but am being very thick here as i don't see what to do next... I have in the 6 shaded cells ... 3 with 1 letter in and 3 with 2 letters in.... are they the titles of the books or characters in them ? I can see how cryptically the letter in the shaded cell in 5d's column could cryptically be a book by the 1st author...but am probably on the wrong track here..???

Just got back to this, and still need hints for a few.
16A Warn in display area about weed.
21A Criminal who was left holding money for current (and potential) relationship.
28A spelt out limits of especially elderly Scotsman.

Also, do the authors read from Right to Left on the bottom row ? I have the first three on the top and right hand side.

Thanks.

16a R in warn is extra ... defn is weed 6 letters
21a criminal is anagram indicator ...who + (w) as + L + m(money) split 4,3
28a E of especially is extra so limits of specially with 3 letters inside for a scottish boys name ..i think!

yes the authors carry on clockwise all the way ...after your 3 ..i think they are split 7,7,6

Thank you very much, xwordfan. I was thinking along those lines but hadn't quite got there !

my post in 55 ... yes that was the right track ...4 done ...working on other 2 now

I haven't got the message from the extra letters yet, and when I started on the unchecked clues in the perimeter they might as well have been Double Dutch ! Can you give me an idea of the first two words from the extra letters,as I must have made a mistake.
Thanks.