Winner to embrace old French writer (6,4)
I believe the answer is:
victor hugo
'french writer' is the definition.
(19th-century French novelist)
'winner to embrace old' is the wordplay.
'winner' becomes 'victor' (synonyms).
'to embrace' becomes 'hug' ('hug' can be a synonym of 'embrace').
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'victor'+'hug'+'o'='VICTOR HUGO'
(Other definitions for victor hugo that I've seen before include "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame author" , "writer" .)