Independent Conservative to praise one country novel (1,8)
I believe the answer is:
i claudius
'novel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'independent conservative to praise one country' is the wordplay.
'independent' becomes 'i'.
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'to praise' becomes 'laud' (lauding is a kind of praising).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'country' becomes 'us' (U.S. is an example).
'i'+'c'+'laud'+'i'+'us'='I CLAUDIUS'
(Other definitions for i claudius that I've seen before include "Work" , "Graves made this" , "Historical novel by Robert Graves" , "TV series" , "Graves 7 novel" .)