| SMILES | Samuel -; author of Self-Help, Character, Thrift and Duty who worked as a newspaper editor, a doctor and a railway secretary (6) |
| ECONOMY | Thrift and efficiency |
| EDASNER | Actor who starred as a newspaper editor in TV series Lou Grant (2,5) |
| LOUGRANT | American TV series that featured Ed Asner as a newspaper editor |
| EMERSON | Transcendentalist author of "Self-Reliance" |
| SMITH | Author of self-illustrated poetry collections including The Englishwoman, A Good Time was Had By All and Not Waving But Drowning (5) |
| POINTSMAN | A policeman on duty who knows the score? |
| RESERVE | Armed forces not on active duty who can be called in an emergency (7) |
| ALASTAIR | Which Campbell is a journalist and author who worked as a spin doctor for Tony Blair? (8) |
| MARATHONMAN | 1976 thriller featuring Laurence Olivier as a war criminal who worked as a dentist: 2 wds. |
| KIMPHILBY | Member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for the Soviet Union in the 1930s, '40s and '50s (3,6) |
| LARKIN | Poet who worked as a librarian at the University of Hull for many years |
| IMOGENHOLST | A composer's daughter and a composer herself, who worked as Benjamin Britten's assistant |
| IEN | Marci _ (Member of Parliament who worked as a broadcaster) |
| NED | One-time Ramsay Street resident who worked as a tattoo artist, _ Willis (3) |
| APHRABEHN | 17th-century playwright who worked as a spy for Charles II (5,4) |
| HARRIET | Tubman who worked as a conductor in the project represented in this puzzle |
| FLESH | Edible part of a fruit formed by anagramming the first five letters of "self-help" |
| ARTFORUM | Magazine that was once, per a former editor, a "camarilla of kingmakers and bullyboys" |
| EXTRA | From "outside the normal course of events", a word for a person or thing who or which is additional, spare or superfluous, such as a newspaper special, supernumerary or walk-on (5) |
