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See my post at 58. It's not an anagram and it's not English.
As the preamble states, the 3-letter words are derived from the 3 16-letter entries, 3 being significant.

No, it's not an anagram. To my mind, it's a fairly logical progression from the first to the second to the third.

Got it thanks! I get the reference to the book I think but still cant find the 4 words- I have two of them so will keep trying

Solved all the clues, but cannot see how the four three-letter entries are derived. Is it possible to give a hint within the rules of this forum?

I think my post @71 is as far as it's possible to go without giving you the answer. It's much more straightforward than you might think. My post @65 regarding the title might help give you an idea of how to derive the words, but they're simpler than the title.

Thanks Mack. I will keep trying.

Mack, I have found a consistent way of deriving the four un-clued entries from the 16-letter across entries and these, together with the fifth word, are all similar features. However, I do not see their significance.

0pt0, you don't need to look for collective significance, just the common (consistent) derivation. It's the fifth word that 'semantically' fits the theme.

Thanks Barnacle.

Just wanted to say thanks to Mack. I spent hours head scratching over the four words, but 'it's simpler than you think' got me there!

Also maybe coincidental but i did think one of the four was somewhat thematic as a present holder of one of the relevant titles