Person of honour dined with Lee — not I (8)
I believe the answer is:
laureate
'person of honour' is the definition.
'dined with lee not i' is the wordplay.
'dined' becomes 'ate'.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'lee' becomes 'laurie' (poet Laurie Lee).
'not' is a deletion indicator.
'laurie' with 'i' taken out is 'laure'.
'ate' put after 'laure' is 'LAUREATE'.
(Other definitions for laureate that I've seen before include "One given an award" , "This Poet is official in England" , "National poet" , "Outstanding achiever" , "Honoured by a distinction" .)