Most of novel by French writer, avoiding the sea, heading off for imaginary territory (5-5,4)
I believe the answer is:
never-never land
'most of novel by french' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'writer avoiding the sea heading off for imaginary territory' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'writer' could be 'verne' (I've seen this before) and 'verne' is present in the answer.
'territory' could be 'land' (land is a kind of territory) and 'land' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'never' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for never-never land that I've seen is " Imaginary country (Peter Pan)".)