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You are farther along than I am Gitto. I only have two of the fancy clue answers. For 11 and 8 you are correct about the extra words. For 11 look up the four letters around the r in the BRB. in 8 try adding three letters to your answer to get a synonym of a word in the clue

Ukridge, I've done that, Jurassic and ane are what I have.

I assume that 3d and 21a include the synonymous pair?

Most normal clues done, but only two of the thematics, and I have no idea how to review these answers to provide suitable entries. For what it’s worth, my two thematics are both animals.

Back on normal ground, I can’t parse 1ac or 22ac

Tips please

Dylan, two of my thematics are also animals. In 1a,My = M, and reactionaries and hiccups are both in Bradfords, for 22a the ancient city is the obvious one as is the synonym for stop, wordplay is 3 within 5.

I think for 22ac—remove the name of a commonly cited ancient city from an Italian carriage (not a common word as far as I can tell), surrounding a word for “to stop.” Definition is a single word.

I've now solved a few dozen clues including seemingly two thematics but I have absolutely no clue how to interpret any of the preamble! Not an inkling as to the theme or the eight special entries.

The preamble bemused me initially, but I felt that the majority of it simply hindered the solve.

Essentially we are replacing eight words from the same source with cryptic examples of them (wordplay or definition). This gives nothing away - it's just a precis of the preamble. As I said earlier, the extra words were of no help to me in finishing. If you have a couple of the eight, Google them together.

Thanks Gitto
Iwnated MY to be M in 1ac, but didn’t know it was allowed.

So back to the thematics. I’ve tried putting my two examples. In google, as suggested, but no clear result. I think I’ll be waiting for more insights here

I do think there’s a decent hint to some likely authors quite early in the preamble, and once you have worked out which one, Googling them with thematic answers should help you to find the theme

Dylan - for me (a different experience from comment #17) the extra words DID lead to the title of the work fairly straightforwardly. The Wiki entry for that title then led me to the rest of the theme.