Crossword Genius

Heartless rogue stars in Dickens, say (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

realist

'dickens say' is the definition.
(Charles Dickens might be called a realist writer)

'heartless rogue stars' is the wordplay.
'heartless' means to remove the middle letters.
'stars' becomes 'alist' (the A-list means very famous people).
'rogue' with its centre removed is 're'.
're'+'alist'='REALIST'

'in' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for realist that I've seen before include "One seeing things as they are" , "Non-dreamer?" , "Pragmatist" , "Someone who's pragmatic" , "Sensible and practical person" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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