Admiration for good books by individual in one of the Shires? (8)
I believe the answer is:
devotion
'admiration' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'good books by individual in one of the shires?' is the wordplay.
'good books' becomes 'ot' (Old Testament).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'individual' becomes 'i'.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one of the shires?' becomes 'devon' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ot'+'i'='oti'
'oti' going into 'devon' is 'DEVOTION'.
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for devotion that I've seen before include "Strong emotional attachment - void note (anag)" , "Religious zeal" , "Dedication" , "Commitment to some purpose, religion say" , "Intense loyalty" .)