Given suggestion to do manual work, I collapse or die, first to suffer really terrible death — fracas on a foreign street (2,3,4,5,4,3,12)
I believe the answer is:
if all else fails read the instructions
'given suggestion to do manual work' is the definition.
(suggestion to consult a manual)
'i collapse or die first to suffer really terrible death fracas on a foreign street' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is found in the answer.
'collapse' could be 'fail' (I've seen this before) and 'fail' is present in the answer.
'first' could be 'i' (I in Roman numerals eg Elizabeth I) and 'i' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'death' is 'eadth' which is present in the answer.
'fracas' could be 'ructions' (both can mean complaint or controversy) and 'ructions' is located in the answer.
'on' could be 're' ('on' can be mean 'with reference to') and 're' is located in the answer.
'street' could be 'st' and 'st' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?