Terrible female novelist in Italian town (10)

I believe the answer is:

gorgonzola

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'italian town' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'terrible female novelist' is the wordplay.
'terrible female' becomes 'gorgon' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'novelist' becomes 'zola' (Zola is an example).
'gorgon'+'zola'='GORGONZOLA'

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for gorgonzola that I've seen before include "Italian town" , "Blue-veined cheese" , "Italian blue cheese" , "Big cheese" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sunday Times and The Times.

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