son1, as FSIR... clearly makes no sense, I think it means choosing in random order, eg you could extract FIRST from the first nine discards.
Could you clue me into 42, I can't guess what it is, though I suspect a French theme..?
FSRIR is correct - the authors and the cryptic definition of their work are in order but letters intermingled. We are finished and found the grid fill straightforward but the endgame was exceptionally hard and took a long time to complete.
Same here. Isn't the "of" just saying that 18 of the letters in clue order etc.? If the top row is 3,11 then we are in a foreign tongue. Does that mean that the author is also foreign, and 42 as well? Presumably the non-correspondence of "six-word" and two in 1A + three in 42A will resolve itself when the penny makes contact with the floor.