Comrade of Robespierre's an English novelist (4)
I believe the answer is:
amis
'english novelist' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'comrade of robespierre's an' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'an' could be 'i' (Roman numeral for one) and 'i' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ams' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for amis that I've seen before include "Martin --, Eng. author" , "Kingsley -, English author (Lucky Jim)" , "Author of Lucky Jim, d.1995" , "Author Kingsley or Martin" , "English writer" .)