English person of wisdom outside very good on secret assignments? (9)
I believe the answer is:
espionage
'secret assignments?' is the definition.
(use of spies or secret agents)
'english person of wisdom outside very good on' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'person of wisdom' becomes 'sage'.
'outside' is an insertion indicator.
'very good' becomes 'pi' (I've seen this in other clues).
'pi'+'on'='pion'
'sage' enclosing 'pion' is 'spionage'.
'e'+'spionage'='ESPIONAGE'
(Other definitions for espionage that I've seen before include "Practice of spying" , "hush-hush work" , "seeking information" , "intelligence" , "agent's job" .)