On Thu, 18 Jul 2019 at 22:30, Henri Menke <henrimenke@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Your formatting obscures the problem because compiling this example
> works fine.  I think you are starting a new paragraph before {\bf ...}.
> That is a well-known problem and there are posts about it on the mailing
> list every once in a while.  The sidefigure mechanism uses \parshape to
> make the paragraph flow around the figure.
>

Very many thanks Henri for your patient explanation, and my apologies for
inadvertently asking a FAQ. I had thought the effect hasn't happened with
the same content in mkii but it must have been a happenstance of different
formatting.

Thanks again for the clear solution.

Duncan