Revives female pen-pushers despatching first novel (8,2)

'revives' is the definition.
(freshen up can mean to revive)

'female pen-pushers despatching first novel' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'despatching first' means to remove the first letter.
'novel' indicates an anagram (letters in a new or novel order).
'pen'+'pushers'='penpushers'
'penpushers' with its first letter removed is 'enpushers'.
'enpushers' anagrammed gives 'reshensup'.
'f'+'reshensup'='FRESHENS UP'