Cryptic crossword No 867

Not had much time for new 15x15 puzzles recently, but I've enjoyed revisiting the archives - this is a tweaked version of my third (& final) Rookie Corner puzzle.

Thanks Fez, I enjoyed revisiting this. Found it very tough despite having seen it before! On the whole, I think your tweaks are for the better. And looking back at Rookie Corner, I see that my favourite then was my favourite today, the superb 17A.

Crikey, Fez. Like an onion with layer after layer of hidden insertion. Couldn't solve it all without help. It's as clever as ever. Many thanks. PM

Phew! This was a tough nut to crack but I got there in the end - and spotting the theme early helped. I agree with Coot on 17a. I’ll have to go back and look at what the Big Dave crowd made of this. Spoilers in reply…

Well this was quite 31a, more so than your other RC archive dives! Got there in the end but thank goodness for crossers and the Check button 😁 For the unparsed ones your excellent notes illuminated me and they were roughly evenly split between ‘oh yeah!’ and ‘well, I was never going to get that anyway’ (eg 27a)…! Loved 17a, 22a, 15d. Spoilery continuation —>

Another that I've no memory of! The theme whooshed over my head, but that was no impediment to enjoyment. Favourites included 17a, 27a (although I would err on the side of caution!), 1d, 28d. Didn't parse 30a, but having read the annotation I am fully on board. Thanks Fez

Thanks all for comments and apologies I've not had chance to reply individually ...suffice to say the Rookie Corner crowd found this very tough indeed! I knew it was (and that they mightn't warm to the theme!) but I do love a toughie and was pleased with most of the clues - 17a also my favourite. (For anyone interested in the theme - 17a is, for me, by far the stand-out novel, the others are fun but often seem like good short stories taken too far - the short stories are excellent!)