Clue: To feed starving mutt, this woman's focus — there's nothing from table (6,7)
Answer: MOTHER HUBBARD
Explanation: To feed starving mutt, this woman's focus — there's nothing from table (6,7)
A charade of MOT, which is 'mutt' with the internal letters replaced by O (nothing inside – i.e. 'starving') plus HER ('this woman's') plus HUB ('focus') plus B[o]ARD ('table') minus the O ('there's nothing from'). Complicated, but I prefer this to treating MOTHER as 'this woman'. The clue is then an &lit. *As James @29, to whom thanks, points out, the O in MOT is the one taken from B[o]ARD at the other end of the clue. Waste not, want not.