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Realised my error! Had the wrong entry for 9D.

That’s mersault. Realised my error exactly as you posted your response.

Hello again. Without chambers, this has been a real struggle. I realise the theme requires it, and that the Listener is supposed to be difficult but... As it stands I can’t reconcile either of the letters in the first squares of 17 or 22 (A/O, G/J I suspect). Afaics the answers are uncommon words that bear no relevance to the theme and could have been clued without quite so much abstruseness. I absolutely admire the craft and elegance of the setters, but to be stumped right at the end by an inadequate bookshelf is so disappointing.

The following in parentheses:
>50% of the entries in this are words I’ve never encountered before (notwithstanding thematics). e.g. 9d, presumably terms = SE but I’ve no idea why, and the resulting answer is pretty obscure, the only entry I could find to fit had a K at the end which bizarrely seemed more likely than the S.

N00b - 9d first definition of term in Chambers is "an end", meaning to ignore the end of each anagramatical word.

I agree that these crosswords are virtually impossible without Chambers and suggest you invest just a little money in the Chambers crossword app for your smartphone.

17a is a U - I had to Google the words to see the link with flourishing and then working out that UAR was a union of Egypt and Syria between 1958 and 1961 - which I agree is somewhat abstruse.

22a is jinns with j for judge removed to give lodgings.

Hope this helps!

I'm not getting it, what is the theme, clues please

Thanks Smartie, that is very helpful. I had another error at 23 down so couldn’t decide between GINS and JINS which bogged me down. Over the line now thanks.

getbacktome, the set of nine and the set of eight are linked, in a way that will become clear. Some will look familiar, others less so but each is an entirely fair, non-exhaustive set.

I'm afraid to hint at the theme getbacktome ...