Novelist fried eight onion rings (8)

I believe the answer is:

deighton

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'novelist' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'fried eight onion rings' is the wordplay.
'rings' indicates the answer is hidden within the clue (in the sense of encircling/enclosing).
'DEIGHTON' is hidden within 'fried eight onion'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for deighton that I've seen before include "Len - (The Ipcress File)" , "Len --, thriller writer" , "Len --, spy writer" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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