Article on Tom's beard is an excellent thing! (3,4,8)
I believe the answer is:
the cats whiskers
'an excellent thing' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.
'article on tom's beard' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'tom's' becomes 'cat's' (a tom is a male cat).
'beard' becomes 'whiskers' (synonyms).
'the'+'cats'+'whiskers'='THE CATS WHISKERS'
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for the cats whiskers that I've seen before include "The best thing" , "at least four whipping implements" , "Rectifiers" , "Most impressive" , "item of early radio equipment?" .)