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Yes, Chambers gives the answer as "a person who lives in fen country" - F(orce) + 4 letter synonym for "authority" reversed/U turn around/over N(orthern)

Oh of course. Doh!
Thanks Brendan.

We've all been there, Gazzar:-)

That was a corker. In an earlier life I would have said that something like this was “a proper Scottish VS, every move much harder than the notional grade but with a beautifully clear line through some really difficult rock only seen once you have got to the top or almost there”.

What a wonderful puzzle by Kea, long known as one of the best setters. Thanks to lockdown, I have found the time to work on this and it has been so rewarding. Must have taken ages to construct, albeit with such a simple theme. But, I couldn't have got there without help from other solvers in this thread. Thank you all, and particular thanks to Kea.

If someone could help me to work out how the displaced letters should be dealt with I would be able to have fewer sleepless nights. (fleetj@btinetrnet.com) Many thanks.

Try and read the fourth circle and that will give you the clue

galfridus, it turns out that the moving outward of letters is to put them into an order based on values the letters are given in an activity that many Listener solvers have surely enjoyed. This activity and the way the values are used are described in ring 5. The “further hint” in ring 1 is so tenuous as to be not much real help I think. You might notice what sort of letters are building up on the outer ring, though, and that might be a hint...

Can anyone hint me the parsing of 10? Have the answer, see the definition, can’t figure the wordplay is all.

Hi Mooncow,

It's a 3 letter word for "wader" (female of the ruff" around a 3 letter word for "cave" (as in a Latin warning this is quite rare) reversed/round. Definition is "artificial leather".