… and to get chitchat about his novelist from tutor (9)
I believe the answer is:
governess
'and to get chitchat about his novelist from tutor' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'get chitchat about his novelist from tutor' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'get' could be 'go' (synonyms) and 'go' is present in the answer.
'novelist' could be 'verne' (I have seen 'French novelist ' mean 'verne' so perhaps 'novelist' could also mean 'verne') and 'verne' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for governess that I've seen before include "Mary Poppins, perhaps" , "Duenna" , "Becky Sharp, say" , "Supernanny?" , "Teacher" .)