The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word PLUTARCH
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
P
L
U
T
A
R
C
H
More clues leading to the result PLUTARCH
- Place around lake with bridge for old writer
- Old writer in another world almost and cunning with it
- First of Lives in set by chief biographer
- Greek god endlessly leading Greek philosopher
- Greek writer’s place linked with tree
- Biographer of Greek god, endlessly cunning
- Ralph cut loose a Greek historian
- Greek writer left in place by bridge
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Old writer" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case old writer = plutarch.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.