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Excellent crossword from Mr E, but a strange one. The quotation took some hunting down, but isn't isn't strictly necessary, as I had already twigged how the jumbles are resolved. Still puzzling over the title though...

Grid almost filled. Extra words and writer found. Stuck on 17a and 18a. And how jumbles are entered. Hints gratefully received.

Thanks crucifer. I have a full grid, the quotation and author and had figured out how to enter the jumbles, but can’t find the reference after much searching. Was fairly confident I had done but wasn’t 100% sure that the reference wouldn’t reveal a final step. Sounds like you don’t need it so I can happily give up trying to locate it.

Bit frustrating to base the puzzle on a reference that is very tricky to find and which you don’t need to find to complete the puzzle. Other than that I thought this was pretty good.

Jumble the puzzle title and apply the same as the "normal" answers to get the source title.

18a is a newborn whale, don’t understand the wordplay. If you can figure out the extra letter and put it in the unch it was that that then gave me the answer as to what the jumbles have in common.

17 is a common word that can mean a drug and is G + a word for relating to the intestines minus T

18a. homophone.

I am probably being a bit dense here but...
I have a full grid other than the 4 ambiguous cells
I have the author, quote and book + a few possible hints from the quote
I also understand how the title works, but...…..
I don't understand how the unch in 18a helps and I do not understand what to do with the normal answers, although 3 of them seem to resolve themselves.

Thanks ginge, makes sense now

Gitto

I think it’s one of those either you see it or you don’t type situations. If you have the full entries for 17 and 18 have a look and see if you can see what could be done to both to make a real word.

Thanks Smellyharry - I missed the bleeding obvious didn't I?