War writer's love novel rejected (4)
I believe the answer is:
owen
'war writer's' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'love novel rejected' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'novel' becomes 'new' (synonyms).
'rejected' is a reversal indicator.
'new' back-to-front is 'wen'.
'o'+'wen'='OWEN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for owen that I've seen before include "Wilfred - - , WWI poet" , "Wilfred - - , WW1 poet" , "'E won over the Welshman" , "Former SDP leader" , "Clive --, English actor" .)