Deserts wife and son, inspiring various tales (10)
I believe the answer is:
wastelands
'deserts' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'wife and son inspiring various tales' is the wordplay.
'wife' becomes 'w' (abbreviation).
'son' becomes 's' (genealogical abbreviation for son).
'inspiring' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'various' is an anagram indicator.
'and'+'s'='ands'
'tales' anagrammed gives 'stela'.
'ands' going around 'stela' is 'astelands'.
'w'+'astelands'='WASTELANDS'
(Other definitions for wastelands that I've seen before include "wilderness" , "Deserts" .)