The lady's surrounded by deer most savage (8)
I believe the answer is:
harshest
'most savage' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are superlative adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'the lady's surrounded by deer' is the wordplay.
'the lady's' becomes 'shes' (I've seen this in other clues).
'surrounded by' is an insertion indicator.
'deer' becomes 'hart' (hart is a kind of deer).
'shes' inserted into 'hart' is 'HARSHEST'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for harshest that I've seen is " Most severe".)