Composr taking brief holidays by the end of August (5)
I believe the answer is:
holst
'composr' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'brief holidays by the end of august' is the wordplay.
'brief holidays' becomes 'hols' (informal abbreviation; 'brief' indicates a short form).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the end of' suggests the final letters.
The final letter of 'august' is 't'.
'hols'+'t'='HOLST'
'taking' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for holst that I've seen before include "He scored" , "Composer of The Planets, d. 1934" , "Planets Suite composer" , "British composer, 1874-1934" , "Gustav - (The Planets)" .)