Possible Clues:

• Manuscript proceeds haltingly, and is translated into French after a year
• Recycled document, white as can be, infested by gremlins
• Past holds deceptively simple example of something overwritten
• Simple taps (anag.); a manuscript
• The old man hobbles to set about getting secondhand document
• Recycled manuscript misspelt badly by personal assistant
• Reused manuscript most bleached, devils inscribed
• One MP's involved in most white parchment that's recycled
• Reused manuscript, as father misspelt 'misspelt'!
• Short-term view not good, as seen in finished rewritten document