Most honoured French author welcomes editor getting promoted (8)
I believe the answer is:
proudest
'most honoured french' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'author welcomes editor getting promoted' is the wordplay.
'author' becomes 'proust' (Proust is an example).
'welcomes' means one lot of letters goes inside another (in sense of 'invites in').
'editor' becomes 'ed' (abbreviation).
'getting promoted' is a reversal indicator (in a down clue, letters go up).
'ed' backwards is 'de'.
'proust' placed around 'de' is 'PROUDEST'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for proudest that I've seen before include "The most conceited" , "Most delighted (with an achievement)" , "Most outstanding" , "Likeliest to fall" .)