Writer in Devon loses the head, upset by table of contents (8)
I believe the answer is:
novelist
'writer' is the definition.
(I know that novelist is a type of writer)
'devon loses the head upset by table of contents' is the wordplay.
'loses the head' means to remove the first letter (I've seen 'losing the head' mean this).
'upset by' indicates an anagram.
'table of contents' becomes 'list' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'devon' with its first letter removed is 'evon'.
'evon' is an anagram of 'nove'.
'nove'+'list'='NOVELIST'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for novelist that I've seen before include "Mailer possibly" , "I've written" , "Spark produced, perhaps" , "Eliot or Bronte" , "Book writer" .)