| ONTHECARPET | Rewrite of chapter one by novelist ultimately to be censured |
| TICKETING | Job of Booker Prize novelist, ultimately to stop marking time? (9) |
| PENCILIN | Tentatively plan writer abridging a bit of dialogue at the end of chapter one |
| CHASTISED | Sites mismanaged in African country may be censured (9) |
| CRITICIZED | Is it Cedric, upset, who has been censured? (10) |
| ASSESS | Judge Conservatives, ultimately, to be led by donkeys |
| BOOKMARK | Is stuck in Chapter One perhaps to remind one to sign up one of those writing about the Apostles (8) |
| HARDCOPY | Printout of chapter at start of work penned by novelist (4,4) |
| APPOINTEE | Imitator admits purpose ___ desire ultimately to be successful candidate? (9) |
| STRIPPOKER | Play it ultimately to be denuded (5,5) |
| APHID | A Greek character proved ultimately to be a pest (5) |
| AROMATIC | A sentimentalist declines onion, ultimately to be sweet-smelling (8) |
| AUSTERELY | Bank used by novelist finally failing: how one then has to live? |
| REASONS | - to Stay Alive; 2015 memoir by novelist by Matt Haig (7) |
| DIESIRAE | Disraeli's changing line for English rewrite of part of Mass (4,4) |
| SHIRTY | Annoyed by rewrite of history, with nothing left out |
| MISCALL | Give bad name to service book, making a small change to chapter - one line |
| INCIPIT | Here begins chapter one, page one, in current set of books |
| BOND | Ornithologist and author of Birds of the West Indies whose name was appropriated by novelist and keen birdwatcher Ian Lancaster Fleming for his iconic fictional secret agent code-numbered 007 (4) |
| ELIOT | Part of the gender-disguising male pen name adopted by novelist Mary Evans to gain serious literary stature in a patriarchal Victorian society (5) |
