Forever a novel character (5)
I believe the answer is:
amber
'forever' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'a novel character' is the wordplay.
'novel' becomes 'mbe' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'character' becomes 'r'.
'a'+'mbe'+'r'='AMBER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for amber that I've seen before include ""Stop" traffic light" , "The traffic-light between red and green" , "Fossil resin - warning light" , "Honey-yellow colour" , "Orange traffic light" .)