Crossword Genius

Controversial book upset half of Hove, including yours truly (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

emotive

'controversial' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'book upset half of hove including yours truly' is the wordplay.
'book' becomes 'tome' (tome is a kind of book**).
'upset' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'half of' indicates taking half.
'including' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'yours truly' becomes 'i'.
'tome' reversed gives 'emot'.
'hove' with half the letters taken is 've'.
'emot'+'ve'='emotve'
'emotve' enclosing 'i' is 'EMOTIVE'.

(Other definitions for emotive that I've seen before include "Moving - controversial" , "Argumentative" , "Eliciting intense feeling" , "Showing feelings" , "Deeply felt" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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