Overturning beer ban, is a French writer (8)
I believe the answer is:
rabelais
'a french writer' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'overturning beer ban is' is the wordplay.
'overturning' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'beer' becomes 'ale' (I've seen this before).
'ban' becomes 'bar' (I've seen this before).
'ale'+'bar'='alebar'
'alebar' written backwards gives 'rabela'.
'rabela'+'is'='RABELAIS'
(Other definitions for rabelais that I've seen before include "Creator of Gargantua" , "teller of stories" , "Sixteenth century French author of Gargantua and Pantagruel" , "bawdy writer" , "Sixteenth century French satirical author" .)