On the retiring editor, bestows a beam of pleasure (7)
I believe the answer is:
delight
'pleasure' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'on the retiring editor bestows a beam' is the wordplay.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'the retiring' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'editor' becomes 'ed'.
'bestows a beam' becomes 'light' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ed' back-to-front is 'de'.
'de' next to 'light' is 'DELIGHT'.
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for delight that I've seen before include "Give great pleasure to" , "Jubilation" , "Pleasure (possibly Turkish?)" , "It could be Turkish" , "Glee; its spirit rare, Shelley" .)