The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 letter word TITLE PAGE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
T
I
T
L
E
P
A
G
E
More clues leading to the result TITLE PAGE
- Petite gal skipping small part of book
- For start of book, , two things a knight has?
- “Tea with Piglet” – funny start to book
- Handle call for part of book
- Start of novel call supporting championship
- Petite gal dancing in sheet with name on
- Front of book, e.g. Master and Servant
- Earl, say, and servant appearing in start of book?
- Part of literary preliminaries given by master, maybe, and servant
- Little birdie and servant capture the French part of book
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "For start of book" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case for start of book = title page.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.