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I withdraw the connectedness assumption. This is never stated. What is important is that every cell has an image under reflection in the (known) axis. So, for example, certain cells in the bottom row cannot possibly figure in the jumble, since their images would be off the map.

I am struggling with the highlighting. I assume neither of the letters in the circled cells on row 7 are to be deleted, even though they don't appear in the quotation and are in line with the asterisked cells ?

Thanks espebe

The preamble does not exclude erasure of circled cells. If they are within the block of used cells and not needed they should be erased.
I liked this puzzle. I think the jigsaw effect is interesting and I have not seen it before.
I had an interesting side journey into American garden design before the correct theme emerged. You can get an initial and surname of a famous female landscape gardener from the circled letters.
I made the end game harder by not initially appreciating the mirrored segment is not central in the grid. I spent some time looking at symmetrical pairs of letters and excluding those where one or both did not appear in the quotation. The method is fine but you must do it around the centre of the used cells not the centre of the grid.

Thanks Smithsax, I'd just filled the grid and started my own foray into garden design when I read your post!

I also initially went for the garden designer.

I'm finished after quite a number of futile attempts at shading.

The technique that worked best for me was from post 15. If you erase all the letters which definitely do not appear in the quotation, then you will see a cluster of blank entries around which a symmetrical shape can be drawn. Quite easy from there.

I enjoyed the puzzle, preamble could have been clearer for the endgame.

Also..... I have just realised the popular culture significance of the image!

Allbarone ... I'll bite. I have finished and am pretty sure I've shaded out the correct symmetrical shape. But it just looks like a fairly random shape to me. Any gentle clue as to what I ought to be looking for?

hi espebe,

Do you mean you have a recognisable and unambiguous generic-seeming shape? That's where you should get to.

I realised what the shape represents, and that was the final aha! moment for me. I'm struggling to give a clue while staying within the rules of the forum. Google the theme?