Not the easiest, but fairly straightforward after the fact. I took a while to spot 7 & 8 down. 9 ac is interesting. Obvious answer, but very unusual parsing, with the definition being dragged into the word play without it really being an &lit. Not sure I've seen that before. I'll leave you all to debate the rights and wrongs of that as a device...
Across |
| 1 |
Mischievous about remaining beggar (10) |
|
IMPOVERISH - IMPISH outside OVER |
| 8 |
Volcanic opening about to swallow tree (7) |
|
CALDERA - CA (about) outside ALDER |
| 9 |
Spicy rice, alluring eastern cuisine (one wants seconds!) (5) |
|
PILAU - Second letters of sPicy rIce aLluring eAstern cUisine. A write-in but parsing took a long time |
| 10 |
Mediterranean port area (4) |
|
ACRE - double definition |
| 11 |
Nearly go running through all four seasons (8) |
|
YEARLONG - anagram ('running') of NEARLY GO |
| 13 |
Type of children’s book heroine mostly following it (6) |
|
ITALIC - IT then ALIC(e) |
| 14 |
Liven up by means of hot spice (6) |
|
PEPPER - PEP + PER |
| 17 |
Understood vase is rarely open (8) |
|
TACITURN - TACIT (understood) + URN |
| 19 |
Mist surrounding river amphibian (4) |
|
FROG - FOG with R inside |
| 21 |
Rub out because put in before (5) |
|
ERASE - AS inside ERE |
| 22 |
Marksman getting small owl, perhaps (7) |
|
SHOOTER - S + HOOTER |
| 23 |
Rather sour tonic tends to go off (10) |
|
DISCONTENT - anagram ('to go off') of TONIC TENDS |
