Surrounded by morning papers, sat peripherally (6)
I believe the answer is:
amidst
'surrounded by' is the definition.
(amidst means within or surrounded by)
'morning papers sat peripherally' is the wordplay.
'morning' becomes 'am'.
'papers' becomes 'ID' (identification papers).
'peripherally' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the 'peripheral' letters in the word are kept).
'sat' with its middle taken out is 'st'.
'am'+'id'+'st'='AMIDST'
(Other definitions for amidst that I've seen before include "Admits (anag.)" , "In the centre of" , "During; within" , "Embraced by" , "It's mad (anag.)" .)