Can't get blogs to post excerpts or "read more" links.

Thanks for checking.
http://atgrass.co.uk/fiction/
As you see, no widgets but the footer bar remains.

Ah - wasn't aware you wanted that area gone as well.

Use this CSS instead:

.blog .site-footer {
      display: none;
}

Thanks very much, Tom. I'm sure this will work; but so far I've not been able to execute changes through my GP child theme. I say this because I have just tried to reduce the space between my post title and text (entry content) by placing some code into it which I had already checked with Firebug:
p {
margin-top: -1.5em;
}
html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
border: 0 none;
font-family: inherit;
font-size: 100%;
font-style: inherit;
font-weight: inherit;
margin: 0;
outline: 0 none;
padding: 0;
vertical-align: baseline;
word-wrap: break-word;
}
*::-moz-placeholder {
color: #666666;
opacity: 0.7;
}

I learned that the style sheet doesn't seem to like the px suffix when changing values and got the changes to take effect only after using em. The real problem, though, is that the Wordpress editor is not recognising the child theme. It accepts the data but reverts to the parent theme as soon as the input is recorded. Does it matter that I am using a Mullti-User version of Wordpress?
I'm thinking I need to tell the child theme to import the parent theme data before it will activate.
Much head scratching this end.

You definitely don't need to import the parent CSS - doing so will cause more issues.

To reduce the space between your title and content, you need this CSS:

.page-content, .entry-content, .entry-summary {
      margin-top: 2em;
}

You can replace 2em with px if you like - it should work fine :)

Nice.
Am I to assume this should be inserted into the parent stylesheet (frowmed upon by most accounts), because it sure ain't working in the child; and can I do the same with the content on the Home Page?

Many thanks

Nothing should ever be added to the core GP files.

It should work perfectly in a child theme, but maybe it's set up wrong?

Try a plugin like this: https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-css/

Thanks Tom.
I was using the GP child plugin you recommend in other posts. I merely uploaded and installed it the plugins panel.
This Custom CSS plugin ought to shift things along, after I take one more look at the child theme.
I haven't got 'round to leaving my review yet but the support is an easy 5 stars.

Very weird - that child theme should definitely work.

Let me know how it goes :)

Tom
Tried Custom CSS and got this -
This plugin has been deactivated because your changes resulted in a fatal error.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '.' in /var/www/web/wp-content/plugins/simple-custom-css/simple-custom-css.php on line 44
I have just installed the Child Themify plugin and everything fired up. There may be a bit of pilot error going on here, because although I navigated to the Network Dashboard to use the CSS editor, I also checked the Themes Appearance in the User Admin and saw that the GP Child wasn't activated. I also seem to remember installing your plugin via my ftp client, which was probably the reason it didn't present for activation in the User admin panel.
It was worth persevering with, if only to prove that there are no mysteries, just fatigue and bad code.
Big thanks.

Tom

Just reverted to the GP Child theme, installed through the correct channels, and it
works like a charm.

Excellent! Glad you figured it out :)