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Glad you saw it eventually, verlaine. It's a nice PDM when the light dawns. It took two days of theorising in my case, but at least it confirmed what I was certain was the correct answer anyway.

Looks as if I was wrong then. But why can't a word that is encoded as 6,6 occupy 12 cells in row 9 with the blanks at either end? Those who say that three blanks are required make wonder if the third blank is a separator or is just randomly selected. How can that be?

Saoralba, as I say have a good look at D. This is not just a loose description of the expedition, it's the key to the whole puzzle. And it explains not just "6 each", but why the replacements can only be made in row 9.

Saoralba, in the scenario you are suggesting, if the blanks are not separators between letters a solver wouldn't know whether to place one blank at either end or two blanks at one end. There would be three possible solutions. There is a unique solution, which is confirmed in the way that midgers is referring to.

Coming to this thread rather late, and not having read all of it, I'm trying to reconcile "Fram" (6,5) with this from the book :
"Nancy .... sees the Ds long and short flashes reading NP" (6)
Can't fit NP NP though.

"... NP" (3,3)

Now have a solution that works with 6,6 but no spaces between letters. The blanks would probably best fit at each end to fill the remaining 2 squares. Does not feel as elegant as others describe.
Also worried about A which indicates introducing a specific number of objects. I have one at the intersection, 4 with the two pairs of initials and possibly one in the title. So not enough.
Could these objects be added between cells as letter dividers for the coded row?
So near yet so far. Frustrating.

Smithsax :
The rubric says "the contents of cells 23/25 and those diametrically opposite must be transformed to represent initials of the destination", which surely covers all the objects.

Ah yes. Pays to read the preamble properly.

I see the puzzle appeared 50 years to the day since the author died, which makes it a suitable commemoration. But I wonder how many people under the age of 60 have read this children's book, or remember it in such detail? While I was in Shrewsbury yesterday I could not find a copy of it or any of his books.

As for the stunning piece of genius that forms the ninth row, I cannot wait to see the solution. I even thought of adding a dot and a dash to "pole" but that doesn't work.