Affected by onset of nerves after hoax in the London area (8)
I believe the answer is:
stricken
'affected' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'onset of nerves after hoax in the london area' is the wordplay.
'onset of' says to take the initial letters.
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'hoax' becomes 'trick' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'the london area' becomes 'se' (abbreviation for South East).
The initial letter of 'nerves' is 'n'.
'trick' placed inside 'se' is 'stricke'.
'n' put after 'stricke' is 'STRICKEN'.
'by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stricken that I've seen before include "Seriously affected (by, eg, condition)" , "Risk cent, being affected as by grief" , "Laid low (by illness)" , "Afflicted or expunged from the record" , "Wounded" .)