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SE corner really holding me up. Nudges would be appreciated for 38a and 9d, both of which I can't work out from previous posts. (Is the 'authoritarian a name or a type?).

38a - Def is 'destroy' (archaic) - 'benefitial to' is 3 letters + anag last word.
Following WWII the 'authoritarian' was very specific (and heard a lot) now it's pretty general (and heard even more).

..I don't know how that 't' got into 'beneficial'!

Many thanks. I will press on!

If you don't have Collins, an online search should bring up the archaic word.

Cracking crossword! Thanks Eclogue, a good challenge and a lot of fun.

Thought at first that giving such long names in a jumble was unfair, but in retrospect they were sufficiently well known to be fair.

And my kids knew the phrase from school - I didn’t!

I found this tough going, but as enjoyable as I’d expected. Everything unfolded nicely to the end, with no frustration for me: all ambiguities slot into place in the end. I didn’t know the full phrase but Google was my friend :-)

Just one clue I haven’t fully understood: 17 (talkative girl) — could someone just give me a nudge how that holds together? I don’t think it’s one that’s been asked about yet, but it’s just not clicking for me.

I think the definition of 17 is the first 2 words with the wordplay being a reversal of the usual abbreviation for Alabama and a reversal of a three letter common word for everything.
The resulting name is not one I have come across but a Google search suggests it is a given name on Spain and France. Various meanings are given but one is “well spoken”. It may also be a contraction of Eulalia which means “sweetly spoken”.
Not sure if this really leads to talkative.
There may be a better explanation but this (just) works for me.

Smithsax, the name is given in the list at the end of Chambers, being a diminutive of a slightly longer name. It says there 'talkative'.

I use the app rather than hard copy and have not come across the list of names. Is there any way to access it from the app or on line?
Interesting that I cannot find any evidence on line to support talkative. I suspect the list of names in Chambers may be quite old and this meaning has been lost over the years.